Make this the last time - Ajahn Brahm

My 60th year is 2011. Nevertheless, it feels like only yesterday that I was twenty, going out with girls, running around playing soccer, not really worried about my health. A lifetime passes very quickly indeed. It won't be long before I wake up and I'm seventy. This sort of reflection puts our lives in perspective.

Reflecting on Old Age, Sickness and Death - Such reflection allows you to see both the limitations and the opportunities in life - that is, the big picture. When we understand our limitations - old age, sickness, and death - it becomes clear what needs to be done. To see your limitations, look at the nature of the body: it's very fragile, with an endless series of problems that you cannot avoid. So rather than identifying with, indulging in, and caring for this body excessively, you should make sure that this body is your last one and that you don't get into this mess ever again. That's the opportunity.

Old age is a time when most people look back and think about how they've spent their lives.

When you understand old age, sickness, and death, you understand that you have a problem, a problem that needs to be solved. The trouble is, most people don't take action until the problem is right in front of them. They're just like those kids who should have been studying for months and instead do all their reading the night before the exam. It's the same with the great exams of old age, sickness and death: do your homework now, while you're still young, healthy, and fully alive.

You can prepare for those exams by abandoning concern for bodies - your own and those of others.

... keep reflecting, "I must be parted and separated from everything dear and agreeable to me" you gradually lose interest in sensory pleasures and the body. When you thoroughly investigate them, you realize that it just doesn't make sense to pursue happiness in these things. You can then commit yourself to being free from the body and making sure you don't get any other bodies in the future. You understand that attachment to the body is one of the most crucial things to understand and let go of.

Train yourself: sit down, cross your legs, close your eyes, and practice present-moment awareness and silence. Remember that most of your thinking is about the body and the world of sensory pleasure. Stop all of that. Stay with your breathing, and allow the breath to become beautiful and the body to disappear. You don't know where the body is and you couldn't care less; it has disappeared and all you have is the breath. The breath becomes beautiful, and then a nimitta arises. At that point the body, including the breath, has completely vanished.

Freedom from the body: this is what happens when you die. The nimitta is the same light that people see when they leave their bodies at death or have a near-death experience.

You too can experience the bliss of freedom. Then you'll understand the Buddha's teachings and become independent. You won't need other people, and you won't care what they say or do. You'll just sit down in solitude, bliss out, and become free. Don't you want that? It's an offer and you can do it. If you haven't done it yet, it's just a matter of time. The door to the deathless is open. It's up to you to walk through that door, and then you won't grow old, get sick, or die ever again. Make this the last time.