If you reflect on death, there’s nothing you will need; People of Tingri, always keep your death in mind.” “Once the conviction that everything is impermanent, the recognition that existence is extremely fragile, and the awareness that death is an ever-present threat have truly taken root in your mind, you will stop hankering after life’s ordinary compulsions. You will wish for nothing more than to be able to practice the Dharma in a solitary place. Look at Jetsun Milarepa. He had only nettles for sustenance and a cotton shawl for clothing, yet in a single lifetime he attained the supreme level of an Awareness Holder. But if you do not reflect deeply enough on death and impermanence, your lack of perspective will make it difficult to rid yourself of life’s more futile concerns. Your tendency always to want more than you need will continue. Even though you have enough to eat, you will want ever more delicious food. Despite having enough clothes and an adequate place to live, you will keep thinking about getting something better or more fashionable to wear and a bigger, more confortable house. Although you may already have a partner or a lover, you will be constantly on the lookout for someone better. These are all signs that you are no remembering how close death really is, all the time. Why would you invest all that energy on those plans for the future if you were not somehow blindly convinced that you are still sure to be here in this world for a long time to come? The great practitioners of the past described themselves as ‘yogis with the thought of impermanence implanted firmly in their hearts.’ They saw clearly the futility of ordinary pursuits. Their minds were entirely turned toward the Dharma. Their practice of the Dharma was based on a frugal life inspired by the thought of their own death, which they knew would take place in a deserted cave. All these great practitioners, of course, are now dead – for that is the lot of all living beings. But instead of being reborn in the realms of suffering, where all those preoccupied with the pleasures of this life are endlessly caught, they are now in the Buddha-fields. Such a farsighted and profound perspective can take hold within you. It is the result of being constantly mindful of death. Mindfulness if death is a nectarlike medicine that restores you to health and a sentinel that watches over the discipline of your practice, never letting it stray into distractions.” Quote #32 from the book The hundred verses of advice of Padampa Sangye, explained by Dilgo Khyentse. Seche Publications
Posted on: Thu, 25 Dec 2014 12:05:00 +0000
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