standing: no matter how much you fertilize and water that tree, it
is impossible to make it sprout and flower again. This old dead tree
now stands anticipating the day it will topple over and go crashing
to the ground, felled by this very same illness. I thoroughly inves-
tigated my condition long before the symptoms appeared. That
is why I’ve been warning you all: Don’t be complacent. Hurry
up, intensify your efforts now while I am still alive. In that way,
I can help you resolve any problems you may have in the mean-
time. Missing this opportunity now may cause you to waste a lot
of time in the future. I will not be here much longer. Soon I shall
depart this world, in keeping with the law of impermanence that
follows constantly on the heels of all conditioned things with-
out exception. Three years ago I warned you that I would not
last more than three years. What more can I say? What I’ve told
you, I know to be inevitable. The work that the round of saÿsãra
performs inside the minds and bodies of human beings and ani-
mals alike continues unerringly along its natural course. In just a
few months time it will complete its final task within this body of
mine. How can it possibly alter its appointed task?”
With each passing day his symptoms gradually worsened.
Showing no interest in medicines of any kind, he was clearly
annoyed when people came and urged him to try this remedy or
that cure. But so many people arrived offering ‘cures’ that he had
a hard time resisting them all. Each one touted the effectiveness
of the medicine he was offering, insisting that if he took it he was
sure to get better, for it had already cured many others. They all
pleaded with him to try their medicines out of compassion for
them. They wanted him to get better so he could continue to be
of service to his many followers for a long time to come. He often
jacob rumans
(Jacob Rumans)
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