Meditation on inevitable death should be performed every day. Every day when one's body and mind are at peace, one should meditate upon being ripped apart by arrows, rifles, spears and swords, being carried away by surgin waves, being thrown into the midst of a great fire, being struck by lightning, being shaken to death by a great earthquake, falling from thousand-foot cliffs, dying of disease or commiting seppuku at the death of one's master. And every day without fail one should consider himself as dead.
Hagakure: The book of the samurai, Yamamoto Tsunetomo 1659-720
