Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
Everyone — woman or man, householder or renunciate — should often review five plain facts about aging, sickness, death, separation from what they love, and their own inescapable ownership of their deeds, because deliberately dwelling on each one loosens a specific kind of carelessness that its opposite, left unexamined, quietly produces.
Five subjects, stated with no cushioning
The Buddha states the five subjects without any narrative frame — no visiting questioner, no particular occasion, just the list itself, addressed to “a woman or a man, a layperson or a renunciate” without exception. Four are inescapable facts about the body and its attachments; the fifth is the kamma-ownership formula familiar from elsewhere in the canon:
| The subject | What it names |
|---|---|
| Aging | “I am liable to grow old, I am not exempt from old age” |
| Sickness | “I am liable to get sick, I am not exempt from sickness” |
| Death | “I am liable to die, I am not exempt from death” |
| Separation | “I must be parted and separated from all I hold dear and beloved” |
| Kamma-ownership | “I am the owner of my deeds and heir to my deeds… I shall be the heir of whatever deeds I do, whether good or bad” |
That last formula — owner of one’s deeds, heir to one’s deeds, deeds as womb, relative, and refuge — is word for word the same formula that anchors MN 135, the Shorter Analysis of Deeds, already published on this site. There, it answers a question about why people differ in fortune; here, it is offered simply as something worth turning over in the mind often, on its own account.
Not just facts — a stated purpose for each
What sets this discourse apart from a bare memento-mori list is that the Buddha does not stop at naming the five subjects. He goes back through all five and explains, one at a time, exactly what reviewing each one is for:
- Aging. Ordinary people, “intoxicated with the vanity of youth,” do bad things by body, speech, and mind. Reviewing aging loosens that intoxication, or at least reduces it.
- Sickness. People “drunk on the vanity of health” likewise act badly. Reviewing liability to sickness loosens that particular drunkenness.
- Death. People “drunk on the vanity of life” do the same. Reviewing mortality loosens the intoxication of simply being alive and assuming it will continue.
- Separation. People “aroused by desire and lust for their dear and beloved” act badly around the people and things they cling to. Reviewing inevitable separation loosens that excess of attachment specifically.
- Kamma-ownership. Here the mechanism is different: reviewing this subject doesn’t loosen an intoxication so much as it directly promotes giving up bad conduct of body, speech, and mind, since a person who takes seriously that they alone will inherit their own deeds has an immediate, practical reason to act well.
The pattern across the first four is consistent: youth, health, and life itself are shown to function like mild intoxicants — not sinful in themselves, but liable to produce a kind of carelessness (pamāda) that leads to poor conduct, simply because a person who unreflectively assumes their youth, health, and life will last indefinitely feels no urgency to behave well now. Regular, deliberate review is offered as the specific antidote to each particular form of that carelessness.
From a private fact to a universal law
The discourse then goes a step further. Having reviewed these five subjects as facts about themselves, “that noble disciple” is described taking one more step: recognizing that the same five facts hold for every sentient being without exception — “It’s not just me who is liable to grow old… for all sentient beings grow old according to their nature, as long as they come and go, pass away and are reborn.” This shift, from a personal admission to a universal recognition, is described as having a stronger effect: reviewing it often is said to give rise to “the path,” which, cultivated and developed, leads to giving up the fetters (saṃyojana) and eliminating the underlying tendencies (anusaya) — the deep dispositions the tradition holds are what actually keep a mind bound to suffering, well beneath the level of any single bad habit.
In other words, the sutta describes two tiers of the same practice: an everyday, universally accessible level (reviewing these five facts loosens specific bad habits in anyone who does it) and a deeper level available to “the noble disciple” already oriented toward awakening, where the very same reflection, extended to all beings rather than kept private, becomes something closer to insight practice proper.
A closing note in verse
The discourse ends with verses spoken in the first person, describing someone who has lived exactly this way: refusing to feel “disgusted” at sickness, old age, and death in others while expecting exemption for themselves, and instead mastering “all vanities — of health, of youth, and even of life,” finding in renunciation a sanctuary and zeal for the goal the tradition calls extinguishment (nibbāna). The verses close on a note of quiet, settled commitment: “there’s no turning back, I’m committed to the spiritual life.”
A small cataloguing curiosity
In the source manuscripts this sutta is filed under a chapter titled simply “Hindrances” — a heading that has little obvious connection to the sutta’s actual content of aging, sickness, death, separation, and kamma. This is most likely an accident of how the Aṅguttara Nikāya’s many short suttas were grouped into chapters of ten for ease of memorization, rather than any claim that this particular teaching is specifically about hindrances (nīvaraṇa) in the technical, meditative sense that term usually carries elsewhere in the canon. It is worth noting only so the mismatch doesn’t cause confusion; it changes nothing about the teaching itself.
Key terms
The text
The five subjects
§1“Mendicants, a woman or a man, a layperson or a renunciate should often review these five subjects. What five? ‘I am liable to grow old, I am not exempt from old age.’ A woman or a man, a layperson or a renunciate should often review this. ‘I am liable to get sick, I am not exempt from sickness.’ … ‘I am liable to die, I am not exempt from death.’ … ‘I must be parted and separated from all I hold dear and beloved.’ … ‘I am the owner of my deeds and heir to my deeds. Deeds are my womb, my relative, and my refuge. I shall be the heir of whatever deeds I do, whether good or bad.’ A woman or a man, a layperson or a renunciate should often review this.
The purpose of each reflection
§2What is the advantage for a woman or a man, a layperson or a renunciate of often reviewing this: ‘I am liable to grow old, I am not exempt from old age’? There are sentient beings who, intoxicated with the vanity of youth, do bad things by way of body, speech, and mind. Reviewing this subject often, they entirely give up the vanity of youth, or at least reduce it. This is the advantage for a woman or a man, a layperson or a renunciate of often reviewing this: ‘I am liable to grow old, I am not exempt from old age.’
§3What is the advantage of often reviewing this: ‘I am liable to get sick, I am not exempt from sickness’? There are sentient beings who, drunk on the vanity of health, do bad things by way of body, speech, and mind. Reviewing this subject often, they entirely give up the vanity of health, or at least reduce it. This is the advantage of often reviewing this: ‘I am liable to get sick, I am not exempt from sickness.’
§4What is the advantage of often reviewing this: ‘I am liable to die, I am not exempt from death’? There are sentient beings who, drunk on the vanity of life, do bad things by way of body, speech, and mind. Reviewing this subject often, they entirely give up the vanity of life, or at least reduce it. This is the advantage of often reviewing this: ‘I am liable to die, I am not exempt from death.’
§5What is the advantage of often reviewing this: ‘I must be parted and separated from all I hold dear and beloved’? There are sentient beings who, aroused by desire and lust for their dear and beloved, do bad things by way of body, speech, and mind. Reviewing this subject often, they entirely give up desire and lust for their dear and beloved, or at least reduce it. This is the advantage of often reviewing this: ‘I must be parted and separated from all I hold dear and beloved.’
§6What is the advantage of often reviewing like this: ‘I am the owner of my deeds and heir to my deeds. Deeds are my womb, my relative, and my refuge. I shall be the heir of whatever deeds I do, whether good or bad’? There are sentient beings who do bad things by way of body, speech, and mind. Reviewing this subject often, they entirely give up bad conduct, or at least reduce it. This is the advantage for a woman or a man, a layperson or a renunciate of often reviewing like this: ‘I am the owner of my deeds and heir to my deeds. Deeds are my womb, my relative, and my refuge. I shall be the heir of whatever deeds I do, whether good or bad.’
From a personal fact to a universal law
§7Then that noble disciple reflects: ‘It’s not just me who is liable to grow old, not being exempt from old age. For all sentient beings grow old according to their nature, as long as they come and go, pass away and are reborn.’ When they review this subject often, the path is born in them. They cultivate, develop, and make much of it. By doing so, they give up the fetters and eliminate the underlying tendencies.
§8‘It’s not just me who is liable to get sick, not being exempt from sickness. For all sentient beings get sick according to their nature, as long as they come and go, pass away and are reborn.’ When they review this subject often, the path is born in them. They cultivate, develop, and make much of it. By doing so, they give up the fetters and eliminate the underlying tendencies.
§9‘It’s not just me who is liable to die, not being exempt from death. For all sentient beings die according to their nature, as long as they come and go, pass away and are reborn.’ When they review this subject often, the path is born in them. They cultivate, develop, and make much of it. By doing so, they give up the fetters and eliminate the underlying tendencies.
§10‘It’s not just me who must be parted and separated from all I hold dear and beloved. For all sentient beings must be parted and separated from all they hold dear and beloved, as long as they come and go, pass away and are reborn.’ When they review this subject often, the path is born in them. They cultivate, develop, and make much of it. By doing so, they give up the fetters and eliminate the underlying tendencies.
§11‘It’s not just me who shall be the owner of my deeds and heir to my deeds. For all sentient beings shall be the owners of their deeds and heirs to their deeds, as long as they come and go, pass away and are reborn.’ When they review this subject often, the path is born in them. They cultivate, develop, and make much of it. By doing so, they give up the fetters and eliminate the underlying tendencies.
In closing verse
§12–13For others, sickness is natural,
and so are old age and death.
Though this is how their nature is,
ordinary people feel disgusted.
If I were to be disgusted
with creatures whose nature is such,
it would not be appropriate for me,
since my life is just the same.
§14–15Living in such a way,
I understood the truth without attachments.
I mastered all vanities—
of health, of youth,
and even of life—
seeing renunciation as sanctuary.
Zeal sprang up in me
as I looked to extinguishment.
§16Now I’m unable
to indulge in sensual pleasures;
there’s no turning back,
I’m committed to the spiritual life.”
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