Old Age, Sickness, and Death

The question isn’t “How do I avoid old age, sickness, and death?” The question is instead “What are we?” “Why do we suffer?” So this circumstance of directly experiencing old age, sickness, and death was actually a teacher for the Buddha, because these three things point directly to what we, in Buddhism, call the great question of life and death: What is a human being? Why are we here? Why are we born? Of course, this is a kind of teaching that you will not be able to avoid. I can avoid studying math in college by dropping out of the course, but in the end, I can’t drop out of this one.

Just before the Buddha died, he said a very interesting thing: “Life is short. Investigate it closely.” This phrase “Life is short” is very interesting to me. Because to me, it almost seems meaningless. You can say it, but you don’t really know how short life is. I’m old enough to know that I’m probably past middle age. But nobody knows how short their life actually is. [Breathes in and out.] That may have been the last one. I don’t know. So this “Life is short; investigate it closely” means wake up now! Because right here, right now is where you’re going to find your true self.

By Zen Master Dae Kwang
From Something Is Going to Get You!
Primary Point: Summer 2020, Volume 37, Number 2

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Check out a clip from the Kwan Um Zen Online Study Group, Human Beings Always Attach to the Text