Physical Beauty Is Impermanent

Are good looks obstacles or aids to spiritual cultivation? Before becoming a renunciants with the Buddha, Śāriputra saw Bhikkhu Assaji on the street and was impressed by his dignified demeanor. Out of curiosity, Śāriputra approached him and asked, "Who is your teacher, and what is the Dharma you learned from him?" Upon hearing a single verse from Bhikkhu Assaji, Śāriputra attained the first realization (sotāpanna), and, together with his friend Maudgalyāyana, he joined the sangha to learn from the Buddha. On the other hand, before her becoming a monastic, Bhikkhuni Khema, the foremost in wisdom among the Buddha's female disciples, almost missed the opportunity to learn Buddhadharma for being too concerned about good looks.
 
She used to be Princess Khema, the consort of King Bimbisāra. She was gorgeous and proud of it. She once heard about the Buddha from the King and felt interested. Yet, she was not very keen to learn the Buddha's teachings because she assumed that the Buddha would denounce sensual pleasures. For this reason, she always tried to avoid the Buddha.
 
In order to prompt Princess Khema to visit the Buddha in person, King Bimbisāra ordered musicians to compose music to the nature-loving Princess Khema in praise of the serenity and beauty of the Bamboo Grove's natural landscape and its joyous and peaceful atmosphere. After all, the Bamboo Grove was the monastery that King Bimbisāra had dedicated to the Buddha. After listening to the music, Khema was so intrigued that she decided to pay a visit to the monastery.
 
When Khema arrived at the Bamboo Grove in full costume, the Buddha, who was giving a Dharma talk, used his supernormal powers to conjure up a stunningly beautiful young lady to fan for him. Seeing the gorgeous young lady being way more stunning than she was, Khema could not take her eyes off of her, thinking to herself, "What a rare sight this stunning beauty is. Everyone says that the Buddha deprecates good looks. It turns out that I have been mistaken."
 
Surprisingly, in a blink of an eye, the beautiful young girl became a middle-aged woman, who soon aged into an old lady, with her teeth falling out, her hair turning gray, her skin sagging and displaying wrinkles all over her body. Finally, this lady collapsed on the ground, after which maggots started to feed on her body. Shocked by what she witnessed, Khema was deeply appalled.
 
The Buddha said to her, "Khema, look closely at this decaying flesh. It is nothing more than something supported on a skeleton, bound to fall illness, old age, and death. So, contemplate our body with right mindfulness! Only the ignorant are obsessed with these insubstantial conditioned aggregates." Khema listened attentively to the Buddha's preaching and contemplated accordingly. As soon as the Buddha finished his talk, Khema, having matured in her wisdom from her previous lives, immediately eliminated her afflictions and became fully awakened, thereby attaining the fruition of arhatship. Later, with her husband's permission, Khema joined the bhikkhuni sangha and became a disciple of the Buddha who was foremost in wisdom. Khema also gave a Dharma talk to King Pasenadi and was highly praised by both King Pasenadi and the Buddha.
 
Original Chinese text by Liang Chang-fan (梁常梵).



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Physical Beauty Is Impermanent



Resource: Issue 443 of Humanity Magazine (July 2020), Dharma Drum Publishing Corporation
Translation: Li Siang-ling
Editing: Keith Brown, Chang Chia-cheng (張家誠)