Suppose our doctor were to break the news to us that we are suffering from an incurable disease and that we have only one week left to live. If our friend were then to offer us a fantastic gift such as a diamond, a new car, or a free holiday we would not get very excited about it. Yet in reality this is our very predicament, for we are all suffering from a mortal disease. How foolish it is to become overly interested in the passing pleasures of this brief life!

If we find it difficult to think about our approaching death we can just listen to a clock ticking and be aware that every tick marks the end of a moment of our life and draws us closer to death. Atisha used to practise this in his meditations, taking the sound of drops of water as his example.

Or we can imagine that the Lord of Death lives a few miles up the road from our home, and as we listen to the clock ticking we can imagine ourself taking steps in death’s direction. In this way we shall become real travellers.

In Extensive Enjoyment Sutra Buddha says:

These three worlds are as impermanent as autumn clouds. The birth and death of beings are like the entrance and exit of actors on the stage.

Actors frequently change their costumes and their roles, making their entrance in many different disguises. In the same way, living beings take different forms continually and enter new worlds. Sometimes they are human beings, sometimes they are animals, and sometimes they enter hell. The Sutra continues:

The life span of a living being passes like lightning in the sky and perishes as quickly as water falling from a high mountain.

Death will come regardless of whether or not we have made the time for spiritual practice. Although life is short, it would not be so bad if we had plenty of time for Dharma practice, but most of our time is taken up with sleeping, working, eating, shopping, talking, and so on, leaving very little time for pure practice. Our whole time is easily consumed by other pursuits until, suddenly, we die.