Dharma Master Andrew. J. Williams
MEDITATION ON IMPERMANENCE
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“Consider how all the things we cling to in this life are changing moment by moment. They are all subject to disintegration. They are unstable. We must be separated from everything sooner or later. Everything that comes together also disperses.
All meetings end in partings. What is here today is gone tomorrow. What rises, falls. All health ends in sickness. Youth ends in old age. Since birth we carry our death. There is no place that death cannot find us. We cannot add a single day. We relentlessly move in its direction. Nothing can protect us. No wealth, no possession, no friend, no reputation, no success, no power, nor beauty. Nothing can turn back death.
All we have worked for our whole life will be swept away. We cannot take even a single atom of our prized possessions with us. Or a single hair of this body that we have long served and cherished. All we will take with us is the karma that we have collected during our vain pursuit of worldly happiness during this and previous lives.
We should contemplate well on the fact that life is fleeting and passes quickly, like a dew drop on the tip of a blade of grass which soon dries up when the sun rises. We should realise that there is never enough time to do the things we want, and that nothing lasts.
We should contemplate well on the fact that death is certain but the time of death is uncertain. Life spans are not fixed. Sometimes the young die before the old, the healthy before the sick. The things that cause our death are many, whilst the things that keep us alive are few, and they can also cause our death. The body is fragile and easily hurt.
Furthermore, at the time of our death our loved ones cannot help us. Our possessions cannot help us. All the worldly activities we have devoted our lives to cannot help us. Attached to things of this life, we think that impermanent things are permanent. We think that suffering things are happiness. We think that impure things are pure.
We should realise that the only thing that can help us at the time of death is the mind trained in the Dharma teachings.
In summary, the three key principles of meditation on death and impermanence are: 1) That death is certain; 2) that the time of death is uncertain; 3) that at the time of death, nothing can help us but our Dharma practice.”
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~Dharma Master Andrew. J. Williams~
