3. Three Divine Messengers

Author: Vladimir Pyatsly

Translation: Natasha Tsimbler

In conversations with his disciples, the Buddha spoke of the three Divine Messengers (Devadūta Sutta, MN 130). These messengers, who warn people of the urgent need to purify their minds of harmful qualities, are death, old age, and sickness. The Buddha explained that when, in the court of the King of Death, a person claims they were unaware of this necessity, the King of Death responds: ”Have you never seen dying or deceased people? Have you not seen helpless elders? Did you not think that death, aging, and suffering also await you? For they are the Divine Messengers…”

At the age of twenty-one, I was already an experienced meditation practitioner and often spent long periods of time in solitude. However, on the first day working in elder care, the nurse training me took me to visit the homes of my future patients, and when I stepped outside into the fresh air, leaving behind an apartment reeking of old urine and the dressings from a festering wound of my sick patient, I felt my vision darken and it took me several minutes to regain my composure.

Even later, when meeting new patients in need of care, I often woke in the middle of the night with vivid recollections of the smells, the voices of the sick, and the suffering in their eyes. Neither showering nor meditating to calm my mind could fully erase these memories. Only the practice of insight and the visualization of the Pure Lands of the Buddhas allowed my mind to develop equanimity towards all I observed.

A painful sensitivity to others’ suffering is not compassion. It is nothing but fear for one’s own fate. To flee from this fear is to reject the opportunity to hear the Divine Messengers and accept the blessing of the wisdom they offer. Proper visualization allows one to gain insight – to see that the dying, the old, and the suffering are not symbolically, but truly are the Divine Messengers.