Death

This morning I woke up thinking of death. Why do we fear death? I suspect it is not death we fear, but the process of dying. We fear pain, suffering, loss, our own minds, debilitation, loneliness, over-dependency and regret. We have to develop the ability to cooperate gracefully with the inevitable, and death is inevitable. If you knew you were going to die tomorrow, or in a week, what would you do? Would you review your life, prioritize what is important and then try and live out those priorities? Or, would you collapse in fear or denial at the thought of impending finality and enter that domain clinging to the pillow of your regrets? The latter is the gateway to hell, and it amounts to what hell really is, while the prior is the beginning of spiritual wisdom.

To understand the inevitability of death and to face it, no matter how far away it may appear to be is the key to the spiritual life. Mystics, prophets and monks of all traditions are called twice born. This implies that at some point in their lives, they choose to materially die and are then reborn into the spiritual life. They face death squarely and say, "now I live my life as a dead person!" What a release that must be. No more the fear of death. No more the dread of the inevitable. Now you are dead and you can fully live in the moment, every moment, and sense the presence of the divine.

Emotional and psychological mediocrity are not the way to live life, we should be able to plumb the depths of misery to understand true joy and bliss. If we face death squarely and understand that whatever time we have left, a week or forty years, is a gift to be valued, then perhaps we will live every moment fully from now on. First remove all regrets from your life. Then give your love to those you have shared your heart with along the way and give it freely and unconditionally. Then turn inwards and open your inner eye and say, "I am already dead, now let me return to the place I am really from." If you do this with sincerity, the void from which you have come, from which our very essence and matter arose, this void will open its gates and let you catch a glimpse of the light you will see when you die. This moment will be true bliss and then every moment of your life will be lived as a dead person, bathed in the light of timeless, formless, blissful immortality.