According to the Ariyapariyesana Sutta (Discourse on the Noble Quest) MN 26,[1] the first three remembrances are the very insights that led Gautama Buddha to renounce his royal household status and become an ascetic after experiencing strong feelings of spiritual urgency (saṃvega).
Alternately, it may be designated as A iii 71 to signify that in the Pali Text Society's Anguttara Nikaya's third volume, this discourse starts on page 71.
Below are two English translations and the original Pali text of the "five remembrances": The Buddha advised: "These are the five facts that one should reflect on often, whether one is a woman or a man, lay or ordained.
Thus, by contemplating these facts, the Noble Eightfold Path (anchored in right understanding, conduct and effort) is cultivated and spiritual fetters are abandoned.
But wherever beings come and go, pass away and re-arise, they all are subject to old age...[6]Two central Buddhist concepts highlighted in this discourse and echoed throughout Buddhist scriptures are: personal suffering (dukkha) associated with aging, illness and death; and, a natural ethical system based on mental, verbal and physical action (Pali: kamma; Skt.
[8] Nyanaponika & Bodhi (1999) note: The first three contemplations commended serve to replicate, in the thoughtful disciple, the same awakening to the inescapable realities of the human condition that was thrust upon the future Buddha while he was still dwelling in the palace.
[13] In the similarly named sutta AN 3.36, Yama's interrogation is reduced to addressing the three universal conditions of aging, illness and death.