Mark 11:21 Meaning Peter

Sati: Recollection Sati is the faculty of keeping something present instead of losing it behind you. Peter walks the same road twice, and the second walk carries the first inside it; without that, the withered tree is one more dry stick by the roadside. Remembering here is a watch kept, the way you keep one eye on a pot left simmering on the stove.

Kamma-vipāka: The ripening of action Vipāka is the result that comes due from what was done. A tree with leaves and no figs has finally produced something: dryness, delivered overnight instead of waiting on a season. Peter ties deed to outcome in one breath, "the fig tree which you cursed has withered," and that tie is the whole of what ripening means.

Anicca: Impermanence Anicca is the mark on everything that is put together. Full leaf one morning, stiff and dry the next: this tree did quickly what every tree along that road was already doing slowly. Speed is what made it worth pointing at, the way a house that has leaned for years still shocks the street on the night it falls.

Saṃvega: The shock that wakes you Saṃvega is the jolt a sight of decay sends through a person. "Rabbi, look!" comes out before any explanation, the way you grab a friend's sleeve at a wreck along the highway. A shiver is only worth having if it moves, and Peter's does: it turns into the question that gets him an answer about faith and prayer.

Maraṇasati: Keeping death in view Maraṇasati is death held on purpose in the mind's eye. Monks are sent to look at a body left in the open ground and to think, this is my nature too, and "look!" can be taken as that same instruction: green yesterday, dry today, and the man pointing is made of the same stuff. The lesson lands while the memory of the leaves is still warm.