Of all footprints
That of the elephant are supreme;
Of all mindfulness meditations
That on death is supreme.
~Buddha
"There is no place on earth where death cannot find us. Men come and they go and they trot and they dance, and never a word about death. All well and good. Yet when death does come to them, their family members, their friends; catching them unaware and unprepared, what fury, what despair! To begin depriving death of its greatest advantage over us, let us adopt a way contrary to the common one; let us deprive death of its strangeness, let us frequent it, let us get used to it. We do not know where death awaits us; so let us wait for it everywhere. To practice death is to practice freedom. A man who has learned how to die, has learned how to live." ~ The Tibetan Book of Living & Dying
Befriending Impermanence
It is absolutely certain that we will die. It is uncertain when and how we will die.
The deepest reason why we are afraid of death is because we do not know who we are; and we are identified with people and things that are impermanent. We believe in a separate, unique and personal identity; but if we dare to examine it, we find that this identity depends entirely on an endless collection of things: our body, name, family, titles, education, profession, social identity, property, bank balance...it is on their fragile support that we rely for our security. So if they are all taken away, will we have any idea of who we really are?
Without our familiar identifications, we are faced with just ourselves, a person we do not know, an unnerving stranger with whom we have been living all the while but haven't befriended. That is the reason we try to fill every moment of time with with noise and activity, however mundane, trivial or mindless it is; so that we do not have to confront our own selves. But how long and how far can we run from ourselves? At least at the time of death when all the identifications will be taken away, we will have to face. But that is most likely to be too late; lack of understanding and awareness will plunge us into another birth and a new drama will start unfolding creating new unconscious patterns and suffering, keeping us a slave forever. Until we decide to know ourselves in life. Why postpone suffering till another lifetime/lifetimes? Why not now!
Overcoming the Fear
The fear that impermanence awakes in us that nothing is real and nothing lasts, is actually our greatest friend because it provokes us to ask: Is there anything that lasts? Is there anything that is permanent? Is there something we can depend on, that does survive what we call death? Allowing these questions to occupy our mind with urgency and contemplating on them, we find ourselves making a profound shift in the way we view things. With continued contemplation and practice, we come to uncover inside us 'something' that cannot be named or 'conceptualised' yet identifying with this new reality we emerge into a new dimension of freedom where suffering ends, forever.
Be Conscious of Change
Heraclitus, a Greek philosopher born in 544 BC said, “No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man.”
Basically it means that everything is changing all the time, every moment. Just because we are not consciously aware of it or our faculties are not refined enough to notice these subtle changes, does not mean that things haven't changed. Make it a practice to start noticing some obvious changes and you will be surprised how unconscious we generally remain to these changes.
1. Start with your body: Every time you eat or drink something, the chemistry of body is changing. Every time you think of something new or learn something different your brain is making new connections that did not exist before. Your body and mind are not the same as they were a moment ago. Few years ago your body did not exist. Few years later your body will cease to exist. It is impermanent.
2. Notice changes around in your environment: When you take a walk in your garden notice the flowers that have bloomed today, new leaves that have sprouted, flowers that have withered today. Weather changes every day. These little things are reminder of the changes occurring all the time. Nothing in your world is as it was a moment ago. Many people, places and objects have ceased existing for you. Everything is impermanent.
3. Contemplate on deaths of strangers: When you pick up the newspaper and read about someone's death somewhere; newspapers are always filled up this kind of news; give it a little more thought. Just yesterday this person was alive like you and today he/she is no more. A lot has changed around that person in just one day.
4. Let every disaster be a reminder: Sometimes large scale changes like natural disasters act as wake up calls and make humans realise how helpless and insignificant they are in front of nature. Right now Corona virus has changed everything dramatically world-wide. Who could have thought of such wide scale threat and impact. This is a great opportunity to become conscious and recognise how impermanent everything is.
5. Meditate on your own death: Whether you like it or not, one day this body of yours will stop existing. You may ask, "Should I stop living thus?" No, that is not the point. We fast even though we may be hungry and exercise even though we may want to rest, so the body can work with improved efficiency. Similarly, if we meditate on our death and become comfortable with the idea, not fearing it anymore; our mind will lose its grossness, and we will find that which is beyond death.
The idea for this exercise is not to scare you but to make you more aware how impermanent everything is. The more one realises this, the stronger develops the yearning for the permanent. Is there anything such as 'Permanent?' For sure, impermanent cannot exist without the permanent. Hindus call it 'Paramanand' or the eternal bliss.
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