Sometimes, we hear of people who commit suicide, which is such a waste of human potential. One person who was quite wealthy left most of his estate to charity but killed himself. Another young person who had served in the military in Iraq or Afghanistan had a substance abuse problem when he came back. This completely alienated his family, and he ended up jumping off a bridge in Spokane. These are incredible tragedies. They had a human life and the ability to learn the Dharma, but they never had the karma to actually meet the Dharma. Instead, their intelligence got warped by their experiences, and feeling delusional, they wound up thinking that death would alleviate their pain. Unfortunately, it does not.

When you start watching your peers die, not from accidents but from illnesses that inflict on us as we age, it becomes more vivid that your death is approaching. There is no way to avoid death. Time becomes our most precious possession. Time is not an unlimited supply. We do not know when it is going to run out.

It is only with the time we have that we can create virtue, purify non-virtue, learn the Dharma, and contribute to the welfare of others. Our body, possessions and other things all come and go. They are not very important. But our time becomes very important. How we choose to spend our time, and the motivations we want to have when we are doing certain activities, become much more important. It becomes clear to us that in whatever we do, we need to generate a good motivation. Continuously cultivate a bodhicitta motivation and dedicate. Although these do not stop death from coming, but they can help us prepare for death.

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