Ven. Acariya Mun - Spiritual Biography + photos

of the matter is: we are all in the process of dying, little by little,
every moment of every day. The people who died and were re-
located to the cemetery – where their numbers are so great there’s
scarcely any room left to cremate or bury them – are the very
same people who were dying little by little before; just as we are
now. Who in this world seriously believes himself to be so unique
that he can claim immunity from death?
We are taught to visit cemeteries so that we won’t forget
the countless relatives with whom we share birth, ageing, sick-
ness, and death; so as to constantly remind ourselves that we
too live daily in the shadow of birth, ageing, sickness, and death.
Certainly no one who still wanders aimlessly through the end-
less round of birth and death would be so uncommonly bold as
to presume that he will never be born, grow old, become sick, or
die. Since they are predisposed toward the attainment of free-
dom from this cycle by their very vocation, monks should study
the root causes within themselves of the continuum of suffering.
They should educate themselves by visiting a cemetery where cre-
mations are performed, and by reflecting inwardly on the crowded
cemetery within themselves where untold numbers of corpses are
brought for burial all the time: such a profusion of old and new
corpses are buried within their bodies that it’s impossible to count
them all.^10 By contemplating the truly grievous nature of life in
this world, they use mindfulness and wisdom to diligently probe,
explore, and analyze the basic principles underlying the truth of
life and death.
Everyone who regularly visits a cemetery – be it an outdoor
cemetery or the inner cemetery within their bodies – and uses
death as the object of contemplation, can greatly reduce their smug