Being mindful of impermanence and death encourages us to examine how we use our physical and mental energy and what makes for a valuable use of our time. When I look at the things I think about all day, I recognise that they are not terribly valuable. Especially when I think about the fact that my life is going to end and all I will take with me is my physical, verbal and mental karma. When I ask myself if these thoughts are the kind I want to have when I am dying, or whether they are the kind of imprints I want to take to my future lives, usually the answer is “no”.

We spend so much time on thoughts like: “Does that person like me? Do I fit in? How do I appear to others? What are they saying about me? Do I look good enough?” Our obsession with reputation and others’ opinions and judgments about us is not Dharma practice, which involves checking our motivations and physical, verbal, and mental actions. Learning to assess ourselves properly
includes rejoicing at the things we do well, doing purification, and deciding to change the things we do not do well. Not included is beating ourselves up for our trivial thoughts, which is another classic waste of time and serves absolutely no healthy or productive function.

Nobody ever taught us how to think healthily, so this is something we must learn to do as part of our Dharma practice. Of course, we eventually want to go beyond thought, but first, we need to learn how to think in logical, useful, and beneficial ways on the conventional level. Indulging ourselves and feeling guilty are counterproductive, and remembering impermanence and death helps
to cut out these extremes. They also make us think about what virtuous thoughts are and how to cultivate them in our minds. Then we can transform our body, speech, and mind by practising the positive mental factors and the ten virtues of refraining from killing, stealing, unwise sexual behaviour, lying, divisive speech, harsh speech, idle talk, coveting malicious thoughts, and wrong views.

“365 Gems of Wisdom” Volume One (January — March) e-book is out now!