Welcome it! Instead of aversion, welcome it. Hey, this is life. Big sign, this is a big sign that hits you in your face. Your first gray hairs, your first wrinkles, your teeth falling out, third set of teeth... You don't need the teeth you've got, you can get third ones. (Steve pulled out his false tooth to show everyone) The aches in the body, everything else that falls apart, if you get older - welcome it! These are heavenly messengers. For those of you who don't know the term heavenly messengers, it means you haven't read a biography of the Buddha yet.
The Buddha had in his powers as a young, rich prince, everything gorgeous, lovely, and his father was trying to keep him away from seeing the heavenly messengers, in other words seeing reality. So he kept him locked up, basically in three different palaces, one for every season. Bringing in beautiful musicians, this or that. He had a beautiful wife but finally the Buddha said, "Hey, I would like to see what is our there, in case I do became King. I would like to see the kingdom." His father had to agree eventually, but his father made sure that nothing showed any signs of decay or death, any old age.
All the villagers were made to clean up everything. In the palaces of the prince they used to take off the dead leaves from the trees so the prince wouldn't even see that. But as the story goes he went out and he saw a sick person and he was shocked, "What the heck is that?" And his attendant told him what it was. And he says, "That happens to all our subjects and also to me?" And his attendant says, "Yes." He was disturbed, for the first time in his life he was disturbed, because he faced reality. He went out again, seeing next an old person and he was disturbed again. "You mean I might have a aging body, I might have hair and teeth falling out?" - "Yes." He went out again and he saw a dead body. Oh my gosh, this was the big one - death! He'd never seen anything that was dead. Take it for what you want; because it seems a little strange if you live in park like places, but this is how the story goes, these were the three main heavenly messengers.
He was distressed from it all, yet he was contemplative. He couldn't enjoy his happiness so much any more because all of a sudden he realized what life was really going to bring him later, one of the three, if not all three - disease, aging and death. He went out again and he saw a wandering monk. This was the nice part, this was the nice heavenly messenger, because all of a sudden he was being told, yes, yes, there's Dukkha here, but here's a guy trying to find the way out. And the Buddha got hope then, the Buddha got inspired, "I'll find the way out." These were the four heavenly messengers.
So when you see your first signs of aging, whether it's gray hair, wrinkles, or whatever, this is a heavenly messenger coming to you. Good! Take it in, welcome it, say, " Ok, I've got to work more, I've got to practice to make my mind strong." Every time I see a new something change on my face, oh, I spotted a little new spot on my ear, just this morning, here it is, more decay. Good in one way, as it reminds me that I haven't got much time left. My time gets shorter day by day. It's not that I'm going to live more tomorrow. Tomorrow is one day less than I've got left anyhow. So my time is getting shorter and shorter and every time I get a reminder, "Hey your time's running out," welcome it, use it, develop more of what we referred to earlier, "Samvega" so it will spur on your practice.