![]() The man who dies in desirelessness knows the art of death. And the man who dies completely satisfied has no reason to come back again. If this happens to you, how will you be born again? You will die fully satisfied. There should be no thought whatsoever of achieving more than you already have. No matter what may be achieved, it should be more than enough. You should be content – as if you have reached your goal as if there is no further journey to be undertaken as if there is nowhere else to go. One relationship, one order, is replaced by another relationship, another order. The final event is not the end it is just a separation. ![]() So the event of death is but a part of the chain of events belonging to the same phenomenon. That falling from the tree is not an event outside of the yellowing process of the fruit rather, it is the eventual fulfilment of the yellowing itself. It turns more and more yellow until finally it becomes completely yellow and falls from the tree. First the fruit is green, then it starts turning yellow. No, in fact, it is the final occurrence in the series of events that take place in life. Ordinarily, we look upon death as something that happens outside of life, or as some kind of phenomenon opposite to life. So if we want to die consciously we need to start living consciously. If you know you are going to have to bail out of a plane, it’s smart to have a parachute with you (and one that you know works) rather than to start making one just before you step outside! In other words: dying is a process that happens not separately from living but as part of it. * At whatever stage you are in life, be as aware as you can. * How to help yourself stay aware when you die? Paradoxically (paradoxes line this particular path!) when we are conscious to our dying, we become more capable of really living. Knowing for certain now that our life is going to end, we are more aware of it than perhaps we have ever been. The past is rapidly fading and there is not going to be a future, or certainly not in a way that we can imagine. ĭying can do a similar job to meditation: it, too, jolts us into the present. Yet a life-threatening illness calls to the soul, taps into spiritual resources, and can be an initiation into the soul realm for the patient and for anyone else who is touched by the mystery that accompanies the possibility of death. We don’t anticipate, when we become sick, that the soul will be engaged. So: when we know that being fully present to whatever life presents is the most fulfilling and meaningful way to live, we’ll want to live our dying in the same way. Through them we find out a little more about ourselves and so they can be the catalyst for waking up a little more. We may notice too that challenging times provide their own teachings. There’s an acceptance that anxiety is simply what is happening in the moment and – as do all other emotions if we allow them to – will pass on. By contrast, when we face anxiety consciously we can watch the worried thoughts and feelings without fighting them. Unaware, when times are challenging, we are overwhelmed by anxiety. Even the otherwise-unremarkable events take on a new significance. ![]() The joyful, loving moments become deeper and more vibrant. But when we are present – that is, open to what is in each moment, fully engaged and observant – our experience changes qualitatively. We can live on ‘automatic pilot’ – absent in a sense and just going through the routine of our day. Let’s start by asking: Why live consciously? – because living-dying is one process but it’s easier to understand dying indirectly, through our everyday living. Rather, when a person dies fully conscious, he finds there is no death at all. Death proving to be a delusion does not mean, however, that death remains in some form as a delusion. ![]() In other words, if a man can manage to remain conscious at the time of death, he finds he never died at all: death appears just a delusion to him. If a man can die in the state of consciousness, for him death exists no more. Dying consciously will also include attention to some practical aspects such as creating a will, Advance Decision (also known as a Living Will) and so on. Here we look at the psychological and spiritual aspects of dying with awareness. Why would you want to die consciously, and how to go about preparing for that? ![]()
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