When you are young you think that you will live forever. That’s because of your perspective – you haven’t been alive for long. A big part of growing up is understand the true value of time.
Inspiration from Iceland:
- Animals die,
- friends die,
- and thyself, too, shall die;
- but one thing I know that never dies
- the tales of the one who died.
Inspiration from the Japanese Samaurai
The Way of the Samurai is, morning after morning, the practice of death, considering whether it will be here or be there, imagining the most sightly way of dying, and putting one’s mind firmly in death.
Although this may be a most difficult thing, if one will do it, it can be done.
There is nothing that one should suppose cannot be done.
The average human spends roughly 79 years or 28,835 days on Earth. So, there are an average of
692,040 hours in a lifetime
229,961 sleeping
= 462,078 hours awake
6,570 hours getting ready
32,098 hours eating and drinking
We don’t have much time. How do you spend it?
This is how many weeks you have left based on your age. I think its great to remember that your time is limited. It is quite inspirational and puts the small things that aren’t important into perspective (such as other people’s opinions) and can motivate you to do the things that are important to you.
Memento mori
Latin for ‘remember that you [have to] die’) is an artistic or symbolic reminder of the inevitability of death.
You have obtained a human life, which is difficult to find,Have aroused an intention of a spirit of emergence, which is difficult to arouse, Have met a qualified guru, who is difficult to meet, And you have encountered the sublime Dharma, which is difficult to encounter. Reflect again and again on the difficulty Of obtaining such a fine human life. If you do not make this meaningful, It will be like a butter lamp in the wind of impermanence. Do not count on this lasting a long time.
On this occasion when you have such a bounty of opportunities in terms of your body, environment, friends, spiritual mentors, time, and practical instructions, without procrastinating until tomorrow and the next day, arouse a sense of urgency, as if a spark landed on your body or a grain of sand fell in your eye. If you have not swiftly applied yourself to practice, examine the births and deaths of other beings and reflect again and again on the unpredictability of your lifespan and the time of your death, and on the uncertainty of your own situation. Meditate on this until you have definitively integrated it with your mind… The appearances of this life, including your surroundings and friends, are like last night’s dream, and this life passes more swiftly than a flash of lightning in the sky. There is no end to this meaningless work. What a joke to prepare to live forever! Wherever you are born in the heights or depths of saṃsāra, the great noose of suffering will hold you tight. Acquiring freedom for yourself is as rare as a star in the daytime, so how is it possible to practice and achieve liberation? The root of all mind training and practical instructions is planted by knowing the nature of existence. There is no other way. I, an old vagabond, have shaken my beggar’s satchel, and this is what came out.
