"Nothing is real, Nothing Stays, Nothing Lasts"

is killing me slowly. 

Mnemonic devices used in manuscripts to help students and monks memorize and recall entire books, theses, policies, and manuscripts themselves I understand.
Symbols used to evoke thoughts of solitude, monsters, evil, repentance, sin, christ, biblical stories, sex, knowledge and why they were prominently animals I understand.
What I don’t understand is how to begin to use visual reference to teach this when the manuscript illustrations are not available, nor even in existence in some cases. They wrote about shit thats not real. WHYYYYYY.