Many of us don’t remember this, but a long time ago, we lived inside our mothers’ wombs. We were tiny,
living human beings. There were two hearts inside your mother’s body: her own heart and your heart.
During this time your mother did everything for you; she breathed for you, ate for you, drank for you. You
were linked to her through your umbilical cord. Oxygen and food came to you through the umbilical cord,
and you were safe and content inside of your mother. You were never too hot or too cold. You were very
comfortable. You rested on a soft cushion made of water. In China and Vietnam we call the womb the
palace of the child. You spent about nine months in the palace.
One day I was walking, and I felt something like an umbilical cord linking me to the sun in the sky. I saw very clearly that if the sun was not there, I would die right away. Then I saw an umbilical cord linking me to the river. I knew that if the river wasn’t there, I would also die, because there would be no water for me to drink. And I saw an umbilical cord linking me to the forest. The trees in the forest were creating oxygen for me to breathe. Without the forest, I would die. And I saw an umbilical cord linking me to the farmer who grows the vegetables, wheat, and rice that I cook and eat
I am of the nature to grow old. I cannot escape growing old. That is the first remembrance: “Breathing in, I know I am of the nature to grow old. Breathing out, I know I can’t escape growing old.” We are all afraid of getting old. We don’t want to think about it. We want that fear to stay peacefully down there, far away from us. This contemplation comes from the sutra in the Anguttara Nikaya III 70–71. Surely I will have to grow old. This is a truth that is universal and inevitable. But most of us don’t want to acknowledge it, so we live more or less in denial. Yet down deep in the recesses of our minds, we know it’s true. When we suppress our fearful thoughts, they continue to fester there in the dark. We are driven to consume (food, alcohol, movies, etc.) in an attempt to forget and keep those thoughts from surfacing in our conscious mind. Running away from our fear ultimately makes us suffer and makes others suffer, and our fear only grows stronger
LOOKING AT PRNT FRAILTY POST 80
Bringing Mindfulness to the Seeds of Fear The practice of the five remembrances helps us accept many of our deepest fears—such as old age, sickness, and death—as realities, facts we cannot escape. When we practice accepting these truths, we can realize peace and have the capacity to live conscious, healthy, and compassionate lives, no longer causing suffering to ourselves and others.
FOID X SINKING FEELING
Bringing Mindfulness to the Seeds of Fear The practice of the five remembrances helps us accept many of our deepest fears—such as old age, sickness, and death—as realities, facts we cannot escape. When we practice accepting these truths, we can realize peace and have the capacity to live conscious, healthy, and compassionate lives, no longer causing suffering to ourselves and others.
TNH MTHR GRF
I opened the door and went outside. The entire hillside was bathed in moonlight. Walking slowly in that soft light through the rows of tea plants, I observed that my mother was indeed still with me. My mother was the moonlight caressing me as she had so often done, very gentle, very sweet. Every time my feet touched the earth, I knew my mother was there with me. I knew this body was not mine alone but a living continuation of my mother and father, my grandparents and great-grandparents, and of all my ancestors. These feet I saw as “my” feet were actually “our” feet. Together my mother and I were leaving footprints in the damp soil. From that moment on, the idea that I had lost my mother no longer existed. All I had to do was look at the palm of my hand, or feel the breeze on my face or the earth under my feet, to remember that my mother is always with me, available at any time.
The Nature of No-Birth and No-Death The cloud cannot become nothing. It is possible for a cloud to become rain or snow or hail. But it’s not possible for a cloud to become nothing. That’s why the view of annihilation is a wrong view. If you’re a scientist and you think that after the disintegration of this body you are no longer there—you become nothing, you pass from being to nonbeing—then you are not a very good scientist, because your view goes against the evidence. So birth and death are paired notions, like coming and going, permanence and annihilation, self and other. The cloud appearing in the sky is a new manifestation. Before assuming the form of a cloud, the cloud was water vapor, produced from water in the ocean and the heat of sunlight. You can call it her previous life. So being a cloud is only a continuation. A cloud has not come from nothing. A cloud always comes from something. So there is no birth; there is only a continuation. That is the nature of everything: no-birth, no-death.
One day I was walking, and I felt something like an umbilical cord linking me to the sun in the sky. I saw very clearly that if the sun was not there, I would die right away. Then I saw an umbilical cord linking me to the river. I knew that if the river wasn’t there, I would also die, because there would be no water for me to drink. And I saw an umbilical cord linking me to the forest. The trees in the forest were creating oxygen for me to breathe. Without the forest, I would die. And I saw an umbilical cord linking me to the farmer who grows the vegetables, wheat, and rice that I cook and eat
I am of the nature to grow old. I cannot escape growing old. That is the first remembrance: “Breathing in, I know I am of the nature to grow old. Breathing out, I know I can’t escape growing old.” We are all afraid of getting old. We don’t want to think about it. We want that fear to stay peacefully down there, far away from us. This contemplation comes from the sutra in the Anguttara Nikaya III 70–71. Surely I will have to grow old. This is a truth that is universal and inevitable. But most of us don’t want to acknowledge it, so we live more or less in denial. Yet down deep in the recesses of our minds, we know it’s true. When we suppress our fearful thoughts, they continue to fester there in the dark. We are driven to consume (food, alcohol, movies, etc.) in an attempt to forget and keep those thoughts from surfacing in our conscious mind. Running away from our fear ultimately makes us suffer and makes others suffer, and our fear only grows stronger
LOOKING AT PRNT FRAILTY POST 80
Bringing Mindfulness to the Seeds of Fear The practice of the five remembrances helps us accept many of our deepest fears—such as old age, sickness, and death—as realities, facts we cannot escape. When we practice accepting these truths, we can realize peace and have the capacity to live conscious, healthy, and compassionate lives, no longer causing suffering to ourselves and others.
FOID X SINKING FEELING
Bringing Mindfulness to the Seeds of Fear The practice of the five remembrances helps us accept many of our deepest fears—such as old age, sickness, and death—as realities, facts we cannot escape. When we practice accepting these truths, we can realize peace and have the capacity to live conscious, healthy, and compassionate lives, no longer causing suffering to ourselves and others.
TNH MTHR GRF
I opened the door and went outside. The entire hillside was bathed in moonlight. Walking slowly in that soft light through the rows of tea plants, I observed that my mother was indeed still with me. My mother was the moonlight caressing me as she had so often done, very gentle, very sweet. Every time my feet touched the earth, I knew my mother was there with me. I knew this body was not mine alone but a living continuation of my mother and father, my grandparents and great-grandparents, and of all my ancestors. These feet I saw as “my” feet were actually “our” feet. Together my mother and I were leaving footprints in the damp soil. From that moment on, the idea that I had lost my mother no longer existed. All I had to do was look at the palm of my hand, or feel the breeze on my face or the earth under my feet, to remember that my mother is always with me, available at any time.
The Nature of No-Birth and No-Death The cloud cannot become nothing. It is possible for a cloud to become rain or snow or hail. But it’s not possible for a cloud to become nothing. That’s why the view of annihilation is a wrong view. If you’re a scientist and you think that after the disintegration of this body you are no longer there—you become nothing, you pass from being to nonbeing—then you are not a very good scientist, because your view goes against the evidence. So birth and death are paired notions, like coming and going, permanence and annihilation, self and other. The cloud appearing in the sky is a new manifestation. Before assuming the form of a cloud, the cloud was water vapor, produced from water in the ocean and the heat of sunlight. You can call it her previous life. So being a cloud is only a continuation. A cloud has not come from nothing. A cloud always comes from something. So there is no birth; there is only a continuation. That is the nature of everything: no-birth, no-death.
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