This week's class was on "The Heavenly Messengers." When sickness, old age and death touch us, our lives can be transformed.  As a great sage once said when asked of the greatest wonder of the world, he replied, "That everyone dies ... and no one thinks they will."

I thought I'd share a few of the Death Poems I read.  This is entitled "Zazen on Ching't'ing Mountain:"

The birds have vanished down the sky. Now the last cloud drains away. We sit together, the mountain and me, until only the mountain remains.

I love the following from Dogen.  How could one better describe impermanence?

To what shall I liken the world? Moonlight, reflected In dewdrops, Shaken from a crane’s bill.