Thought
Remember made from dust
Elements five-fold to encrust
Water and food combined
Life ingredients designed
To build a house to enmesh
Marrow, bone, skin and flesh
Remember made from dust
Costume changes to entrust
For role in singing opera play
In body that will soon decay
Reduced to pile of ashen grey
Deserted dust is swept away
Remember made from dust
Disbursed from starry burst
Made from yesterday’s food
Replacing cells of childhood
As ascetic goes with feet bare
Sackcloth and ashes today wear
Remembering thou glorious spirit
With perishable dusty body’s limit
Mercurial identity set aside
From perishing death no place to hide
Whether buried or on a pyre burn
Body, thou art dust, unto dust return
Prayer
O imperishable and unchanging lord seated in all bodily cities. Established in you, attachment to thy earth car ceases as you sustain it for your will to be done. Let me control the queen bee of mind so that all sense pampering cease. Make this fragile gift of body strong and when the time is come, with Thy hand held, I let go.
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