The Buddha called sickness, ageing and death, the divine messengers. The Buddha called death the supreme teacher, containing all teachers just the elephant’s footprint can contain\u00a0all others.<\/p>\n
I know that I will become sick, that I will age, and that I will die. I know these things but rarely am I aware of them. I begin with an intention to be aware of that death.<\/p>\n
I spark my mind with repeated recollections of death: This body of mine will age and die, and its remains will whither and fade. These memories of mine will fade and disappear, and all those with memories of mine will fade and disappear. Everything I own will decay and disappear. Everything I have seen will die. Everyone I know will die. There is nothing I may hold onto that will not die. I will be gone, and all that I hold onto so dearly will be gone.<\/p>\n
At these times distractions may penetrate the mind. Thoughts and scenarios. Also fear of the terror of the unknown nothing.<\/p>\n
I spark my mind with repeated recollections of momentary death: Everything that appears in my mind disappears, and the mind too will disappear. This thought that has appeared will die. This memory, this image, this sensation, this attraction, this sound, this understanding; these will die. These things will die, and these things are dying in every moment.<\/p>\n
At times the mind may distract itself with questions of theory and existence. And these too will die.<\/p>\n
This inhalation is born, expands, and dies. This exhalation is born, expands, and dies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Buddha called sickness, ageing and death, the divine messengers. The Buddha called death the supreme teacher, containing all teachers just the elephant’s footprint can contain\u00a0all others. I know that I will become sick, that I will age, and that I will die. I know these things but rarely am I aware of them. I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[159,90,82,77,113,106],"tags":[117,141,107],"metadata":[],"class_list":["post-644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-posts","category-blog-posts","category-life","category-perspective","category-searching","category-the-traveller-is-the-journey","tag-buddhism","tag-death","tag-meditation"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":816,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2016\/09\/16\/an-attempt-at-seeing-creation\/","url_meta":{"origin":644,"position":0},"title":"An attempt at seeing creation","author":"Pala","date":"September 16, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I am small and the world is great and beyond my comprehension right now. This at least I can say without doubt. But here is a dream. Once there was a fish in a fishbowl. There were pebbles on the ground, water all around, a toy castle, and a filtration\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All Posts"","block_context":{"text":"All Posts","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/all-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":70,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2014\/09\/17\/reading-hegel-part-3-on-lord-and-bondsman\/","url_meta":{"origin":644,"position":1},"title":"Reading Hegel [part 3] on “Lord and Bondsman”","author":"Pala","date":"September 17, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"\u2190\u00a0Reading the\u00a0Phenomenology of Spirit (via the translation of A.V. Miller), seeking sense, but also a way of extracting and explaining that sense into writing. In this entry I am planning an adjusted approach to this problem: I plan to extract the major concepts as I find them, and allow an\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All Posts"","block_context":{"text":"All Posts","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/all-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2391,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2011\/05\/05\/the-consolation-of-philosophy-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":644,"position":2},"title":"The Consolation of Philosophy","author":"Pala","date":"May 5, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Any man who has fallen never stood securely\u00a0(I poem 1) Whenever I think of the\u00a0variegation\u00a0of human lives I think of\u00a0Boethius\u00a0in his cell drafting and commiserating his own misfortune. Background: Boethius was born 476CE around the time that the last Western\u00a0Roman\u00a0Emperor\u00a0was being overthrown. In 493 the leadership changed again as the\u00a0Ostrogoths\u00a0took\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All Posts"","block_context":{"text":"All Posts","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/all-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":810,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2016\/04\/23\/five-ascetics-waiting-for-buddha\/","url_meta":{"origin":644,"position":3},"title":"Five ascetics waiting for Buddha","author":"Pala","date":"April 23, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"The Pali cannon (MN 36) tells the story of the Buddha's enlightenment. Before his liberation, the to-be Buddha tortured himself by emaciating himself and restricting his breathing, in his search for ultimate liberation. Past masters had failed him in his ultimate quest, and so he strived to find his own\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All Posts"","block_context":{"text":"All Posts","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/all-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2586,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2013\/09\/11\/near-death-experiences-and-dmt\/","url_meta":{"origin":644,"position":4},"title":"Wednesday September 11, 2013","author":"Pala","date":"September 11, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"There are quite a few things I'd like to write about now if I could. It's only a question of importance or priority. (I imagine a god creating a world with that attitude: In the beginning, God said, \"Lemme start with...\" - surely a better attitude than having a fill\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All Posts"","block_context":{"text":"All Posts","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/all-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":480,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2016\/03\/09\/walking-towards-right-effort\/","url_meta":{"origin":644,"position":5},"title":"Walking towards right effort","author":"Pala","date":"March 9, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Samma vayama right effort is the 6th of the eightfold path. I shall not give up my efforts until I have attained whatever is attainable by perseverance, energy, and endeavour. We share in four great endeavours: Prevent the arising of unarisen unwholesome states Abandon the unwholesome states that have already\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All Posts"","block_context":{"text":"All Posts","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/all-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"atlas___curse_by_jujubajulia-d5e57xw","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/atlas___curse_by_jujubajulia-d5e57xw.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/padotI-ao","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=644"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=644"},{"taxonomy":"metadata","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/metadata?post=644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}