Old age, illness and death are referred to in Buddhism as the Three Messengers.

According to legend, the Buddha, as the young Prince Siddhartha, after three harrowing encounters with an old person, a sick person, a dead person and a monk, left the luxury of his palace life and became homeless—and he set out in search of the way to end suffering.

Often, we too, encounter the three messengers as if out of the blue.

We usually don't voluntarily face the reality of old age, illness, and death. Only when we are affected does the tendency to suppress them disappear—and the ideas of control or "I'm not there yet."

If we open ourselves to old age, illness, and death and begin to accept them – including the shock, the resistance, the change, the pain, all the emotions and thoughts that arise - we can also hear the messages, the questions, the clues that arise within.

If we don't ignore or fight the messengers of the gods, their messages can lead us to awareness, clarity, insight and compassion and bring us into deep contact with what is essential in our lives and wants to be lived.

This weekend, we will examine how we look at and respond to the three messengers of the gods when they touch our lives.

“Contemplating our mortality helps us focus our energies on transforming and healing ourselves and our world." Thay

This weekend is based on the practice of mindfulness in certain forms of meditation and in all our daily activities. Exercises, talks, meditation, sharings will support us in examining the messages of the three messengers of the gods for our lives.