Beyond Sorrow and Regret

[In the latter stages of The Buddha’s life,] he continued to carry about with him the same serene peace and unperturbable happiness. Folk said he enjoyed life; and so he did: he enjoyed it with a zest that can never be known by those who are attached to it. When people questioned him, he admitted that he was among the truly happy, truly happy because he dwelt apart from earthly things. He was in the world, mixing with the joys and sorrows of people, and understanding those joys and sorrows as if they were his own. Yet he was not of the world. He was of That-Which-Does-Not-Die, which does not belong to time and space.

[Buddha’s closest disciples,] Sariputta and Moggallana, had attained something of the same detached joy and calm. One day Ananda questioned Sariputta concerning the reason for this. He answered: “It must be because I am no longer attached to anything of earth, and in extinction there is bliss. Only today, as I was seated in meditation, I asked myself if there was anything at all in this whole world, whose coming into existence, or whose changing or passing away, would cause me grief. I realized that there was at last nothing at all. I can truthfully say that if anything I know were taken from me, it would bring me neither sorrow nor regret.”

Yasa
from Footprints of Gautama The Buddha