Life is just like a "Morning Glory"- Mindfulness about life

"With these flowers I venerate the Buddha,

By this merit may I gain liberation.

As these flowers fade and wither

So will this body be destroyed"




















Morning glory flowers at 8.30 in the morning in my garden.




















The Morning glory flowers at 6.30 in the evening, the same day!


This is a common stanza Buddhists recite mindfully when offering flowers to Buddha. Impermanence is one of the key teachings of the Buddha. Mindfulness of impermanence is fundamental to Buddhist insight meditation (Vipassana meditation). I will discuss this impermanence and how it can lead to wisdom in detail in a future post.

Buddha encouraged us to be always mindful about old age, sickness and death. He said "you can run but you can't hide from it". Sounds depressing? Well, that is the reality. We all know that we are going to get old, sick and die one day, but it is hard to realize "inside". It is almost like a realization through wisdom that comes within oneself. How to be mindful in aging and death is well explained by the Buddha, in the Sathipattana sutta in the mindfulness of the body section.


See other related posts:
The four Bases of Mindfulness

Mindfulness-About-Life-"A lesson-From The Garden"