Be Buddha, The Impermanence Of Life
Meditation on the mortality of human life.
Hi there! I hope you all are doing great. I wanted to share a poem with you that meditates on human mortality.
As death and birth, move hand in hand,
Against the flow of time, none can stand.
No moment is eternal, life a temporary show,
From dust we all came, to dust we all shall go.
Life and Death
Life is inherently temporal. Everything around us is made of dust and will become dust in due course of time. It is a crucial lesson to understand. As we live our lives, we start to take our existence for granted and live our lives as though we will live forever. It leads to attachment to physical manifestations of realities. When we lose these objects, we suffer pain because of it. Death is a constant reminder of the fragility of life. We are here in the present moment and may die in the next moment.
Death And Stoicism
In Meditations, Marcus Aurelius reminds himself:
“Death, Like Birth, Is Just A Natural Process, Material Elements Combining, Growing, Decaying And Finally Separating And Completely Dispersing.”
The Stoics have long used the practice of meditating on their death to improve their lives. They understood that we were born on Earth and would have to leave this existence someday. We can control what we do between birth and death. And in this life, we can pursue what the Stoics called a virtuous life. The Stoics defined virtue within four characteristics known as the Four Cardinal Virtues of Stoicism. A simplified view of the cardinal virtues provides that a virtuous life consists of:
Prudence (Wisdom): The practical wisdom we possess.
Justice (Morality): Our ability to be moral in our actions.
Temperance (Moderation): Our self-control over our actions.
Fortitude (Courage): Being courageous to life’s adversities.
The poet Linda Ellis captured this very beautifully in her poem “The Dash.”
“For it matters not, how much we own,
The cars...the house...the cash.
What matters is how we live and love
And how we spend our dash.”
Death And Buddhism
From its inception, Buddhism has stressed the importance of realizing death and being aware of its significance. Through this realization, the Buddha understood the futility of life and went in search of the truth. Through years of diligent practice, he achieved enlightenment and transcended death. Buddhists stress the meditation on death every moment since death is inevitable and can arrive at any moment. Atiśa Dīpankara Śrījñāna, a Buddhist religious leader and master, is said to have told his students that for a person who is unaware of death, meditation has little power. Still, a mindful person of death and impermanence progresses steadily and makes the most of every precious moment. A famous saying of the school he founded, the Kadampa, holds that if one does not meditate on death in the morning, the whole morning is wasted, if one does not meditate on death at noon, the afternoon is wasted, and if one does not meditate on death at night, the evening is wasted.
Meditation On Death: Advantages
I believe we get closer to the truth as we meditate on our deaths. It is true that nothing is forever and that the world is built of materialistic manifestations of our minds. Death is an eternal truth and shouldn’t be taken negatively. Instead, we should accept it and use it to empower ourselves by making bolder and riskier choices in our lives.
Another advantage of meditating on death is that our losses in our lives do not look significant. Given everything around us will eventually crumble to an end, we need not worry about losing some money, or missing a promotion, or facing a setback in a relationship. Life moves on, and the world moves on. We are dust, and to dust, we shall return. Embracing death and the impermanence of life takes away all the fears and lets us live a more peaceful and blissful life.
Three reasons why you should meditate on death:
Meditation on death helps build perspective in life.
Meditation on death improves your religious practice.
Meditation on death enables you to lead a virtuous life.
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Cheers,
Ravi.