So impermanence and death are facts of life.
They're not just philosophical ideas that we could believe or not believe,
But they're realities,
Facts of life.
It can't be denied.
And the Buddha said it's very important to contemplate these,
To keep them in mind,
To live our lives with this awareness of the changing nature of things and the eventual dissolution of our body,
Our mind,
Our life,
And everything around us.
So one way we can get a sense of this is just by thinking about our own body.
Right now our body is probably an adult body,
Fully developed,
But it wasn't always like this.
So way back,
Many years ago,
Our body was very small.
We probably don't remember that time in our life,
But we can imagine it.
And you can bring to mind photographs of yourself when you were a baby.
Try to picture yourself as this very small baby in your mother's arms or your father's arms.
And even that small baby wasn't always like that.
But the body starts off as a tiny microscopic zygote,
Fertilized egg,
Combination of our mother's egg and father's sperm inside of our mother's body.
So tiny.
We can't see it with our naked eyes,
Only with a very powerful microscope can it be seen.
And then that tiny microscopic zygote started growing inside our mother's womb,
Nourished by nutrients from her body.
So gradually over about nine,
Ten months it grew and took shape as a human embryo,
Fetus,
A baby.
So it went through lots of changes every day,
Every hour.
And then after our body is born it continues to change,
It continues to grow and change and transform every day,
Every hour,
Every minute,
Every second.
Imagine yourself now as a small child,
Maybe four or five years old,
How your body was at that point in time,
What you were And then after more time,
More growth,
More years,
Became the body of a teenager.
Try to imagine how your body looked then,
How it felt,
What you were able to do,
What you did do.
And then make another jump to the body you had as a young adult in your early twenties.
Some of you might still be at that stage of life,
But many of us are older.
So since our early twenties our body has continued to change year by year,
Day by day,
Moment by moment,
To the point we are at now.
And even now as we are sitting here,
Even though we are sitting still,
Not moving,
Not doing much,
But there are changes happening in our body constantly.
Our body is made of many parts,
Skin,
Muscles,
Bones,
Blood,
Organs.
Those parts are made of smaller parts like cells.
And the cells are made of smaller parts,
Down to molecules,
Atoms,
Subatomic particles.
And these tiny particles don't remain the same,
Still frozen for even a tiny fraction of a moment.
They are constantly moving,
Constantly changing.
And since that's what is happening at the subatomic level of our body,
That means our body itself is changing.
We cannot see these changes with our eyes,
But we can know them,
We can understand them intellectually.
Our body is constantly changing,
Doesn't remain the same from one moment,
One tiny fraction of a moment,
To the next.
And as it's changing,
It's getting older,
Not younger.
And this is something people don't usually like to think about,
Much less like to happen.
We would like to remain young forever,
But that's just not reality.
Think about nature,
The world around us.
Trees,
Plants,
Flowers,
Crops,
The earth itself,
Mountains,
Oceans,
Rivers,
These two are changing,
Going through changes every minute,
Every second.
Things arise,
Come into existence,
Grow and change,
And then eventually go out of existence.
This is what happens with all the things in nature,
Trees and plants,
Also insects and animals,
Birds.
So why should we be any different?
And now turn your attention to the future.
Our body will continue to change,
Get older and older.
And eventually at some point in time we'll find ourselves at the end of our life.
So ask yourself,
How do you want your mind to be at that point in time?
What state of mind would you like to have in the last day,
The last hour,
The last minutes and moments of your life?
What state of mind would you like to have in the last day,
The last minute,
The last minute,
The last minute?
What state of mind would you like to have in the last minute?
What state of mind would you like to have in the last minute?
What state of mind would you like to have in the last minute?
What state of mind would you like to have in the
