The Five Remembrances (Plum Village Version, Thich Nhat Hanh)
- I am of the nature to grow old. There is no way to escape growing old.
- I am of the nature to have ill health. There is no way to escape ill health.
- I am of the nature to die. There is no way to escape death.
- All that is dear to me and everyone I love are of the nature to change. There is no way to escape being separated from them.
- My actions are my only true belongings. I cannot escape the consequences of my actions.
For the past five or six years, every January, I have chosen—or been chosen by—a single word as a linchpin for the year ahead. It’s called the One-Word practice. The chosen word becomes the subject of intense reflection, aspiration, and intention. My One-Words have included: slowly, rest, flow, love, write, and Wu Wei (non-forcing).
My word for 2026 is Death.
“Why do you want to focus so intensely on death?” a friend asked. I responded that in Buddhist practice, meditation on death is recommended to foster the fullest possible experience of life. Maranasati, or “mindfulness of death,” reminds us that life is transient and precious and we must live with intention and purpose.
My time is limited, I explained, and I want to live as fully and consciously as possible. My friend and I both admire Mary Oliver, and, particularly, her poem “When Death Comes.”
When it's over, I want to say all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.
When it's over, I don't want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.
I don't want to find myself sighing and frightened,
or full of argument.
I don't want to end up simply having visited this world.
Like Mary Oliver, I don’t want to just pass through life as a visitor. I want to embrace and inhabit it with amazement.
One way I am practicing mindfulness of death this year is by meditating daily on The Five Remembrances, Buddhist contemplations that acknowledge the inevitability of aging, illness, and death, the reality of impermanence, and the consequences of every action (karma).
I’ve been doing so since the beginning of January: reciting the words of each remembrance, looking deeply into their meaning, reflecting on my experience of each, and writing those reflections in my journal. The following series of brief articles is based on those journal entries. These posts are not a scholarly exploration of Buddhist philosophy. They are personal and experiential. I offer them in the hope that they will resonate with others—especially those who are no longer young and are approaching “The Big Let Go,” Death.
With All Due Respect 