Thought
Remember made from dust,
Elements five-fold 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 pyre burn
The body is 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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