The following talk was given at the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, California.

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Thanks, gratitude, but that's not what I have on my mind.

And I will, you know, somewhat, you know, amusingly defend myself by telling you a little story

that Joseph Goldstein, who's one of the founding teachers of this Western Insight Movement,

still alive, very senior teacher now.

Brilliant man, great practitioner.

He said once that the first time he was asked to officiate a wedding,

he was expected or asked to give a little Dharma talk as part of that.

And the Dharma talk he gave was a talk on death.

So that gives me a little bit of license here

for what you're going to hear.

So the topic is the five remembrances.

And I'll tell you what they are as we go along.

Some of you know, they're kind of a famous set of things to reflect on.

And the Buddha said, when he taught them, he said, this is something

that all people, whether they're lay or monastic, should regularly reflect on these five

remembrances. But I'll start with the first little personal anecdote and lead to a little

story about the Buddha. And this kind of points

to one way in which these five remembrances carry a certain kind of value for me or emotional

association or meanings. When I was 11, I was with my parents visiting Nepal, which back then, I visited again 20 years later, and I was amazed how radically it had changed. I don't think there were any asphalted roads in Kathmandu, and it was like a small town almost.

But one day we were walking around town near a river, and we saw some people carrying a stretcher with a body wrapped in blankets.

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