Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
Twice daily — as day passes into night, and as night passes into day — a mendicant should reflect on the many ordinary causes of death, check whether any unabandoned unskillful quality would be an obstacle if death came before the next check, and respond either with extraordinary urgency to give up such qualities or with rapture and joy in continued skillful training.
A concrete, unglamorous list of causes
The discourse does not speak abstractly of mortality; it names specific, mundane hazards — snakebite, scorpion or centipede sting, stumbling off a cliff, food poisoning, disturbance of bile, phlegm, or the bodily “winds” — the kind of dangers any person, not only a mendicant, might reasonably imagine facing on an ordinary night or day. Death here is not a distant abstraction to be philosophized about but a near, mundane possibility to be checked against, twice within one day.
The question that follows the reflection
Naming causes of death is only the first step; the discourse's actual instruction is the question that follows: “Are there any bad, unskillful qualities that I haven't given up, which might be an obstacle to my progress if I die tonight?” — or, in the morning version, “today.” Mindfulness of death, on this discourse's terms, is not primarily about dwelling on death itself; it is a device for surfacing exactly what remains unfinished in one's own practice, on a fixed and frequent schedule.
The simile: clothes or head on fire
For a mendicant who finds unabandoned unskillful qualities upon checking, the discourse prescribes a response measured against a stock canonical image of maximum urgency: someone whose clothes or head have caught fire would apply “extraordinary enthusiasm, effort, zeal, vigor, perseverance, mindfulness, and situational awareness” to extinguish it, and giving up unskillful qualities should be met with the identical seven-part urgency.
Closing the chapter on a doubled structure
AN 6.20 states its method twice — evening and morning — in nearly identical wording, closing the Sāraṇīyavagga on a note of sustained, twice-daily practice rather than a single teaching given once. The chapter that opened on warmth between spiritual companions closes, ten discourses later, on what a mendicant owes to their own unfinished practice, checked against the plain fact that today or tonight might be the last chance to address it.
Key terms
The text
At Ñātika: the question restated
§1At one time the Buddha was staying at Ñātika in the brick house. There the Buddha addressed the mendicants: “Mendicants, when mindfulness of death is developed and cultivated it’s very fruitful and beneficial. It has freedom from death as its objective and culmination. And how is mindfulness of death developed and cultivated to be very fruitful and beneficial, with freedom from death as its objective and culmination?
The evening reflection
§2As day passes by and night draws close, a mendicant reflects: ‘I might die of many causes. A snake might bite me, or a scorpion or centipede might sting me. And if I died from that it would be an obstacle to me. Or I might stumble off a cliff, or get food poisoning, or suffer a disturbance of bile, phlegm, or piercing winds. And if I died from that it would be an obstacle to my progress. ’ That mendicant should reflect: ‘Are there any bad, unskillful qualities that I haven’t given up, which might be an obstacle to my progress if I die tonight?’ Suppose that, upon checking, a mendicant knows that there are such bad, unskillful qualities. Then in order to give them up they should apply extraordinary enthusiasm, effort, zeal, vigor, perseverance, mindfulness, and situational awareness. Suppose your clothes or head were on fire. In order to extinguish it, you’d apply extraordinary enthusiasm, effort, zeal, vigor, perseverance, mindfulness, and situational awareness. In the same way, in order to give up those bad, unskillful qualities, that mendicant should apply extraordinary enthusiasm … But suppose that, upon checking, a mendicant knows that there are no such bad, unskillful qualities. Then that mendicant should meditate with rapture and joy, training day and night in skillful qualities.
The morning reflection
§3Or else, as night passes by and day draws close, a mendicant reflects: ‘I might die of many causes. A snake might bite me, or a scorpion or centipede might sting me. And if I died from that it would be an obstacle to my progress. Or I might stumble off a cliff, or get food poisoning, or suffer a disturbance of bile, phlegm, or piercing winds. And if I died from that it would be an obstacle to my progress. ’ That mendicant should reflect: ‘Are there any bad, unskillful qualities that I haven’t given up, which might be an obstacle to my progress if I die today?’ Suppose that, upon checking, a mendicant knows that there are such bad, unskillful qualities. Then in order to give them up they should apply extraordinary enthusiasm, effort, zeal, vigor, perseverance, mindfulness, and situational awareness. Suppose your clothes or head were on fire. In order to extinguish it, you’d apply extraordinary enthusiasm, effort, zeal, vigor, perseverance, mindfulness, and situational awareness. In the same way, in order to give up those bad, unskillful qualities, that mendicant should apply extraordinary enthusiasm … But suppose that, upon checking, a mendicant knows that there are no such bad, unskillful qualities. Then that mendicant should meditate with rapture and joy, training day and night in skillful qualities.
The conclusion
§4Mindfulness of death, when developed and cultivated in this way, is very fruitful and beneficial. It has freedom from death as its objective and culmination.”
Self-check quiz
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