Dying Sutras
40 Death Sutras in sthe style of the Avadhūta and Aṣṭāvakra Gita
- I was not born; how could I die?
- This body dies, but I am not the body.
- My breath stops, but I am not the breath.
- My mind falls silent, but I am not the mind.
- I was before birth, I am after death.
- Death belongs only to what I am not.
- I am clear, empty, without boundaries.
- I am stillness, even when the world dissolves.
- I am the witness of birth and death.
- I am untouched, even as this body decays.
- I am not pain, I am not joy; they come and go.
- I am not memory, I am not desire.
- I am not son, not father, not name.
- Identity dissolves in me like smoke in the air.
- I am the field in which everything appears.
- I am light without beginning or end.
- I am silence that cannot vanish.
- I am ocean; the waves die in me.
- I am space; bodies come and go in me.
- I am untouched by time.
- I have never been sick.
- I have never been healthy.
- I have never been young.
- I have never been old.
- Only this body plays those roles.
- I have never gained anything.
- I will never lose anything.
- I am not the story; I am the empty page.
- I am not a wave, but the water itself.
- I am not a moment, but the timeless.
- I need do nothing.
- I need leave nothing.
- I need understand nothing.
- I need hold on to nothing.
- I have never been bound; how could I be freed?
- What can die, I am not.
- I am, and that is enough.
- I am freedom itself.
- I am deathless.
- I am.