The Five Remembrances

The Five Remembrances (5R) are something I stay close to in my practice. I recite and reflect on them often. Recently, I’ve been connecting with them first thing when I start my daily sitting meditation session in the morning. The 5R are as follows:

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 that I love
are 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

When we interact with the 5R on a surface level, I think it’s quite normal to regard them as being downers. Once a month at my home sangha we read the Five Mindfulness Trainings, followed by the Five Remembrances. After the reading, we open up for sharing. Many times I’ve heard folks share about how the 5R are rather depressing. 

I think the 5R are a rather advanced practice to work with. I’m not saying they can’t benefit newer practitioners or that they should be held back from beginners for later use, but I do think that in order to interact with them more deeply, and in such a way that bears fruit, a certain foundation of practice is needed.

One slight modification that I make to the 5R is that instead of saying I am of the nature to grow old I say I am of the nature to grow older. When I think of “growing old” I think of reaching a certain age range. I think of being in my 90’s or even making it to 100-years-old. Since I think of growing old in this way, I’ve edited it to growing older, because, of course, old age is not guaranteed to anyone, and every day each of us is growing older.

To potentially help folks look beyond the surface of the 5R when we read them at sangha, our council, which currently consists of myself as the program director and our 6 facilitators, recently came up with this short introduction to read beforehand:

Introduction to the The Five Remembrances
The Five Remembrances can help us to put our daily life into perspective and inform our choices. More than simply short reminders about the nature of reality, they are deep wells of reflection and practice. They can help assist us in learning how not to take our one precious life for granted. 

Forming an active relationship with the 5R and engaging with them as a practice to apply to my daily life helps to guide my actions in a more skillful and heartful direction. It’s worth mentioning that I don’t think practicing with the 5R alleviates future pain and sorrow when a loved one dies, or makes us impervious to feelings of distress when we get sick or injured. We don’t practice with the 5R to reap future-based rewards or to bypass the often inevitable discomforts that tend to crop up when we start noticing that we’re aging, and our bodies are changing in ways we don’t much like. We practice with the 5R in order to make good use of today. We practice with them in order to feel more encouraged and inspired to follow our heart, dance our joy out, and prioritize spending as much time with the people we love and adore as we can.

There is a way to approach and relate with the 5R in a way that uplifts instead of deflates. A way for the 5R to propel us into purposeful, heartful living right here and now, in the present moment.