DEATH WITH DIGNITY

"Life is an opportunity". You can use it, you can misuse it... or you can simply waste it.
"It depends totally on you, except you"
Nobody is going to be responsible and please note;

"Responsibility is of the individual!"

My dear friends!

Once you realize this, then you start becoming alert, aware. Then you start living in a totally different way. Then in fact, for the first time you become alive.

Otherwise, people live in a sort of dream -half sleep, half awake.... just somewhere in between consciousness and unconsciousness, and please remember!

"That life is not really a life - You exist, but you don't live".

Existence is given to you. Existence is a gift. Life has to be earned. When existence turns upon itself, it becomes life. Existence has been given by the whole:

"You have not done anything for it. It is simply there, a given fact. When existence becomes life.... the moment you start existing in a conscious way, immediately existence becomes life".

"Existence lived consciously is life".

Life is a great challenge, an adventure into the unknown and adventure into oneself, and adventure into that is.

My dear friends!

If you live an unconscious life, you simply exist, you will always remain afraid of death. Death will always be somewhere near the corner, hanging around you. Only life goes beyond death.

Existence comes, disappears, it is given to you, taken away.
It is a wave in the ocean... arises, falls back... disappears.

"If you are still afraid of death, know well- You have not known life yet".
"Death exists only in ignorance".

In the ignorance of that life is. One goes on living. One goes on moving from one moment to another, from one action to another, completely unaware, "what one's is doing?... Why one is doing?... Why one is drifting from this point to that point?"

If you become a little meditative, many times is a day you will catch hold of yourself completely drifting unconscious.

"Actually, the whole effort of religion is to make you aware of your existence".

But we know nothing about our existence! We need more understanding about human nature. "Because the only real danger that exists is man himself. He is a great danger and we are pitifully unaware of it.... We no nothing of man".

"One fallacy continues and that fallacy is that because you are, you think you know who you are. You feel that you are, but you don't know who you are. Just confused feeling, a mixed feeling, a shadowy feeling that you are, is not enough".

It should become crystal-clear. It should become an unwavering light within you. Only then one knows what man is.

The word man is tremendously beautiful. It is difficult to translate it because it has a deeper meanings... He who is filled with light.

There are many possibilities within you, layer upon layer. The first layer is of the body. If you get identified with the body, you are getting identified with the temporal, the momentary. Then there is bound to be fear of death.

The body is a flux, like river-continuously changing, moving. It has nothing of the eternal in it. Each moment the body is changing. In fact:

"The body is dying every moment. It is not that after seventy years suddenly one day you die. The body dies every day. Death continues for seventy years; it is a process".

Please remember!

Death is not an event, it is a long process. By and by, by and by and by, the body comes to a point where it cannot hold itself. It disintegrates, please, please bear in mind;
"If you identified with the body, of course the fear will be constantly there that death is approaching. You can live, but you can live in fear."

And that type of life is possible when one's foundations are constantly shaking? And one is sitting on a volcano and death is possible any moment? And only one thing is certain- that death is coming- and anything else is uncertain.

How can one live? How can one celebrate? Impossible. Death won't allow it. Death is too much and too close.

Then there is a second layer within you; that of the mind which is even more temporal and more fleeting than the body. Mind is also continuously disintegrating.

"Mind is the inner part of the body" and "the body is outer part of the mind".
These are not two thing. Mind and body is not a right expression. The right expression is 'mind-body'.

You are phsychosometic. Not that the body exists and the mind exists.
The body is the gross mind, and the mind is subtle body... aspects of the same coin-one outer, the second inner.

So there are people who are identified with the body. These are the materialists. They cannot live. Desperately they try, of course, but they cannot live.

A materialists only pretends that he is living, he cannot live. His live cannot be very deep; it can only be superficial, shallow- because he is trying to live through the body which is continuously dying.

He is living in a house which is on fire. He is trying to rest in a house which is is on fire. How can you rest? How can you love?

The materialist can have only sex, cannot love. Because sex is temporal; love is something of the eternal. He can make hit-and-run contacts with people but he cannot relate. He is constantly running, because he is identified with the body.
The body is never at rest, it is a continuous movement.

At the most he can have sex-a temporal, a momentary thing; nothing deeper, nothing of the soul, nothing of the innermost core. Beings remain far away; bodies meet and mingle and separate again. The materialist is the most idiotic person, because he is trying to live through death. That is stupidity.

Then another type of person is the idealist-one who is identified with the mind, with ideas, ideologies, ideals. He lives in a very ephemeral, world- not in any way better than the materialist.

Of course, ego-fulfilling, because he can condemn the materialist.
He talks about the divine, he talks about the soul, he talks about religion and great things.

He talks about the other world- but that is all mere talk... He lives in the mind; continuously thinking, brooding, playing with ideas and words.

He creates utopias of the mind, great beautiful dreams- but he is also wasting the opportunity. Because the opportunity is here and now, and he always thinks of somewhere else.

The word 'Utopia' is beautiful. It means "that which never comes." He thinks of something which never comes, which cannot come. He live somewhere else. He exists here and lives somewhere else. He lives in a dichotomy, in a dualism. With great tension he exists. The politicians, the revolutionaries, they all live a life identified with the mind.

"Please understand - real life is beyond both body and mind".

If you readers out there understand 'the real life', this insight is the beginning of real life. How to start this insight?... Start witnessing, start watching and start observing.... Just become a witness, watch somebody is walking on the street... Watch the body walking. The body is your outer shell, the mind is your inner shell... But you are beyond both...

"The witnessed is the object: You are the subjectivity".

A pure consciousness- just simple sheer purity. In this purity, for the first time existence become life. Before it, you were simply 'asleep', 'dreaming'.

Please note:
One who has become capable of witnessing life has become capable of witnessing death. Because death is not the end of life, it is the very culmination of it. it is the very pinnacle of it.

"Life comes to its peak in death".

Because you are afraid, you miss. Otherwise death is the greatest orgasm there is. But people go on missing it because of fear.

Please always bear in mind...
"A man is not alive unless he is psychologically completely healthy". The body is going to be sick sometimes, because it has to become old, it has to die too.

The burden of the body is big, but 'you' are not going to be sick because consciousness cannot be sick, and consciousness be dead.

If you have been meditating in your life, at the moment of death you will remain aware. "So very few people die with awareness".

For those who die with awareness, this is their last death. Now they will not need to suffer the routine, boring, monotonous circles of life.

If you are dying fully aware, you will be able to see the mystery of life and death separating - it is one of the great mysteries. And you will be able to enter into a new womb fully alert - your life has been a success... To me, this is the only success that is worth calling 'success'.

"HOW TO FACE DEATH"

Another problem that people face today is to come to term with the death of their loved ones, and this includes parents. We must realize that death is a natural occurrence and however much we love our aged parents we have to realize.

"The biological fact that human cells have a certain life span". A time must come when they stop renewing themselves. It is to be expected that in extreme old age, cells, lose their ability to maintain the balance of the destruction and repair process and can no longer maintain the body in a healthy manner.

"The history of man is nothing but how he tried to run away from death". Different cultures have tried to run away from death in different ways.

Please note;
Mind needs a permanent life but life creates an impermanent physical body and we take this as life. After that unsatisfactoriness disturb the mind.

For those who have lived a long and reasonably happy life and who "have strong religious training impending death can even be a welcome phenomenon".

When "the time comes, the dying person becomes composed and leaves the world peacefully, confident that he or she had lived a harmless life and contributed to the progress of man".

In societies with deeply entrenched religious beliefs and unadulterated cultural patterns, the concept that death is inevitable and a natural part of the life cycle is accepted. When it does occur in such societies it is treated with philosophic acceptance of the inevitable and always treated with dignity.

Please remember!

"Human beings are the only beings who can understand that one day they will have to face death". That is why they worry unnecessarily about it.

"Worrying about death will not make it stop, so why not accept it calmly?"

On the other hand, "there are those who do not bother at all about the end of their lives or about what happens after that." However, the majority not only worry about existing problems but also worry about the next life.

"All other living beings are free from that feeling".

We have to realize that whatever method, we adopt to overcome our problems, it is impossible to gain complete satisfaction in our lives.... "until we train our minds and reduce selfish desire".

"I am giving you a very clear exposition of how to understand the nature of human problems and how to overcome them and how to face death without fear".

Remember "the simple saying by the saint;"
"'Life' is uncertain and the 'death' is certain."
'Death' is not the end of a life, in fact,
death is the beginning of a life and 'birth'.

"The setting sun in this country is the rising sun in another country".

Therefore, 'birth and death' are interrelated.

And also remember!

"The birth of a man is the birth of sorrow".
"The longer he lives the more stupid he becomes."

What bitterness. He lives for what is always out of reach. "His thirst for survival in the future makes him incapable of living in the present."

I would like to remind all readers:

"That everything that exists is impermanent. With birth there is death; with arising, there is dissolving; with coming together, there is separation."

How can there be birth without death?
How can there be arising without dissolving?
How can there be coming together without separation?

Please bear in mind:

'Birth' and 'death' are two ends of the same string. We cannot remove death and leave existence only. "First, man struggles to avoid death. After that, he prepares for death."

Actually we do not exist but struggle for existence which we call 'living'.

Please imbibe and read repeatedly and please note!

Whatever pleasure one finds in the 'five sense' - objects; like word, touch, form, etc, ultimately turns into pain. "Truly, nothing is so painful as ignorance!"

"Infatuated by the word, a deer loses its life in the end; an elephant enjoys the touch, but has to bear irritation of the goad, too!"

"The form bewitches a moth who finally gets burnt; the fish enjoys the taste, but loses its life instantly."

"Beguiled by the fragrance, the black bee gets trapped in the flowers."

After all, these are only animals, birds, bees and aquatic creatures. But even the wise human being, after seeing their sad fate... still runs after the sense objects!
Could ignorance be anything different?
When ignorance is removed and sensual pleasures are given up, the agitated mind will be emancipated from the thralldom of illusion, and the creature will turn towards Self-realization, which will bring him the highest bliss.

"But we do not know the root cause of our existence - from where we have come and where we will proceed or why were born and what is the purpose of our birth."

We spend our life as we wish. "Then comes the time of death". All the bodily organs become feeble "and yet, a good thought does not enter the mind".

Although we see the "wife, husband, sons, brothers, mother", our chosen friends and kith and kin, "dying before our very eyes, yet it does not give rise to any good,.... wise thoughts in our mind".

But the 'wise' are not liked that. They are most alert and having full knowledge of the time of death.


From Empty Hands,
A.Rahman bin Mahadi
Labis, Johore
016-6020321

20 February 2011

Next Topic: 1. "Jangan Melahirkan Anak-Anak Untuk Tujuan Penderitaannya"

2. "Human Values Have Become Totally Extinct In Human Beings"