The 5 Daily Reflections

I don’t get a proper long sitting meditation in as often I would like anymore. Business, laziness, lack of motivation, pandemic blues, take your pick of excuse.

But I do run through the five daily reflections without fail:

1. I am subject to aging, have not gone beyond aging.
2. I am subject to illness, have not gone beyond illness.
3. I am subject to death, have not gone beyond death.
4. I will grow different, separate from all that is dear & appealing to me.
5. I am the owner of actions, heir to actions, born of actions, related through actions, and have actions as my arbitrator. Whatever I do, for good or for evil, to that will I fall heir.

It’s something of a Buddhist memento mori. Much of the overreactions of the past couple of years seem to come from forgetting that aging, illness and death are inevitable.