Buddha recommended reflecting on these five points.

Western cultures foolishly condition people to live in denial and avoid these five.

Get comfortable with these and your ego will be set free and you will spend less time acting stupid and more time giving random hugs.

further reading

• Subjects for Contemplation Upajjhaṭṭhana Sutta (AN 5:57)
• beyond coping
• blog page

• I am of the NATURE TO GROW OLD, I cannot escape old age

• I am of the NATURE TO GET SICK, I cannot escape sickness.

• I am of the NATURE TO DIE, I cannot escape death.

• All that is dear to me and everyone I love are of the NATURE TO CHANGE. There is no way to escape being separated from them.

• I INHERIT THE RESULTS of my actions of body, speech, and mind

Drunk with the intoxication of youth, an uninstructed, run-of-the-mill person engages in bodily misconduct, verbal misconduct, & mental misconduct. Having engaged in bodily misconduct, verbal misconduct, & mental misconduct, he—on the break-up of the body, after death—reappears in the plane of deprivation, the bad destination, the lower realms, in hell

Drunk with the intoxication of health, an uninstructed, run-of-the-mill person engages in bodily misconduct, verbal misconduct, & mental misconduct. Having engaged in bodily misconduct, verbal misconduct, & mental misconduct, he—on the break-up of the body, after death—reappears in the plane of deprivation, the bad destination, the lower realms, in hell

Subject to birth, subject to aging, subject to death, run-of-the-mill people are repelled by those who suffer from that to which they are subject. And if I were to be repelled by beings subject to these things, it would not be fitting for me, living as they do