I first encountered the 5 remembrances after I was a chaplaincy scholar on the Sati Heart for Buddhist Research. Diana Lion, one of many lecturers, handed us an altar card with 5 statements from the Upajjhatthana Sutta. Right here they’re of their blunt simplicity and undeniability:
I’m of the character to age.
I’m of the character to change into sick.
I’m of the character to die.
I will probably be separated and parted from all that’s pricey to me.
I’m the inheritor to my actions.
Whereas at Sati, and later as a volunteer on the Zen Hospice Venture (now Zen Caregiving Venture), I mirrored silently on every line, feeling the feelings that arose with every assertion whereas attempting to stay as nonetheless as doable with the agitation. Reflecting on the 5 remembrances is a reality verify, and this helped me change into extra genuine with individuals who have been of their final days of dwelling. Authenticity requires recognizing and releasing the culturally laden, death-denying methods for making folks (and myself) be ok with dying by reassuring them (and myself) they’d survive. Reality verify: they have been on an accelerated dying path, together with the opposite twenty-plus folks within the hospital unit, and no royalty-minded, faultily constructed facade of immortality may obscure that actuality.
Within the Buddhist chaplaincy world, we remind ourselves that we’re always within the state of dying. However within the broader tradition of a booming cosmetics business, we’re always fooled into believing that if we have now the means to safe a drink from the fountain of youth, we are going to by no means age, change into sick, or die. Via our cultural investments in beauty obscuration and longevity, we’re set as much as expertise devastating shock after we inevitably encounter sickness and dying.
How usually must you mirror on the 5 remembrances? Whether or not a reality verify within the type of the 5 remembrances is required sometimes or incessantly is dependent upon how averse you might be to going through the realities of getting old, sickness, and dying. Dwelling the place we reside, on this society, I’d recommend participating on this reflection apply no less than month-to-month to counter the cultural illusions of permanence that result in shock and despair when actuality dawns.
The 5 remembrances could be written on an altar card and positioned among the many different valuable altar gadgets we will probably be parted from. They are often chanted on the total rotation of the moon to underscore the passing of time, maybe as we recall Dogen’s exhortation: “Time swiftly passes by and alternative is misplaced. Every of us ought to try to awaken. Awaken! Take heed, don’t squander your life.”
In fact, a 5 remembrances apply needn’t be restricted to a Buddhist context, for its truths are common and could be contemplated as an necessary a part of any non secular path. Maybe via this apply we will contribute to a tradition the place older persons are honored, assets to look after the sick are extra accessible, and we be taught to say “goodbye” to the dying like we are saying “good day” to these being born—with deep appreciation for the reward of excellent well being when we have now it, the life levels of our getting old, and our fleeting lives, with out the shock and despair that forestall us from providing love and genuine care.
