I am of the nature to grow old. There is no way to escape growing old.

I am of the nature to have ill health. There is no way to escape having ill-health.

I am of the nature to die. There is no way to escape death.

All that is dear to me and everyone I love of of the nature to change. There is no way to escape being separated from them.

My actions are my only true belongings. I cannot escape the consequences of my actions. My actions are the ground on which I stand.

The Five Remembrances help us to make friends with our frears.

From Thich Nhat Hanh’s book The Heart of the Buddha’s Teachings:

When we look at the ocean, we see that each wave has a beginning and an end. A wave can be compared with other waves and we can call it more or less beautiful, higher or lover, longer lasting and less long lasting. But if we look more deeply, we see that a wave is made of water. While living the life of a wave, it also lives the life of water. It would be sad if the wave did not know that it is water. It would think, ‘Some day I will have to die. This period of time is my life span, and when I arrive at the shore I will return to nonbeing.’ These notions will cause the wave fear and anguish. We have to help it remove the notions of self, person, living being and life span if we want the wave to be happy and free.

A wave can be recognized by signs- high or love, beginning and ending, beautiful or ugly. But in the world of the water, there are no signs. In the world of relative truth, the wave feels happy as she swells, and she feels sad when she falls. She may think, ‘I am high’, or ‘I am low,’ and develop a superiority or inferiority complex. But when the wave touches her true nautre- which is water -all her complexes with cease, and she will transcend birth and death.

…Liberation is the ability to go from the world of signs to the world of true nature. We need the relative world of the wave, but we also need to touch the water, the ground of our being, to have real peace and joy….Looking deeply into relative truth, we penetrate the absolute. Relative and absolute truths inter-embrace. Both truths, relative and absolute, have a value.

…It is nice to be old! There are things young people cannot experience. Young people are like a source of water from the top of the mountain, always trying to go as quickly as possible. But when you become a river going through the lowland, you are much more peaceful. Your reflect many clouds and the beautiful blue sky. Being old has its own joys. You can be very happy being an old person. When I sit with young monks and nuns, I feel they are my continuation. I have done my best and now they are continuing my being. This is interbeing, nonself.

Shannee’s thoughts…

I woke feeling sad and frustrated today. I woke actually praying today. I was dreaming of praying for answers to questions I’ve struggled with for many years now about the nature of loving, about my ability to love, about lots of other things as well; especially inner mastery and will power.

These passages didn’t bring me to thinking about fears of growing old or getting sick or being abandoned or even dying…as they are meant to do. I guess that most of the time, I just don’t fear that stuff. I fear things like not be alluring any more when it comes to getting old. I fear that being sick will keep me from generating an income so I can be more comfortable in my life and health than I am now. I fear that I cannot love well and that I have learned nothing about loving at all. I fear that I will die before I have accomplished what I’ve been born to accomplish. The old, the sick, the abandoned, the dying…that’s the easy stuff. Its done now after all…its all the regrets and not getting to’s that make me crazy.

No…this passage took me to my True Nature…which is where all things are done, all possibilities already exist, where I can love perfectly, where I have no need to struggle and worry and second guess myself, where accomplishment is in being, not in creating or pleasing or doing.

True Nature is serenity itself to me. I can breathe in that.