Suicide and accepting death! This is one sure way to clear out a room of very quickly. It is the one constant in this ever changing world..... that you are going to die. Yet we are all scared of it. It is almost as if people like living in this fantasy land that nobody dies and everyone lives for ever.
The ultimate irony (according to Buddhists) is that if you can learn to accept your death and to be comfortable with it, then you can truly learn to live! Lets unpack this statement a bit further
They say think about your death every single day. Hell even imagine how it is that you are gong to die. Be really comfortable with the idea. It is the things in life that we don't come into contact with (e.g., Sharks, Spiders) that we are most scared. Same principle applies. Get yourself acquainted with death.
And through doing this, you realise what is important in life and live more presently in the moment and not to be distracted by things that really aren't that important.
How free would you be if you were not scared of death, had accepted it and realise that it could happen at any moment. Think how differently you would approach life. Everything else would pale in comparison.
So how can you practice it? One way that I have started doing it recently is when flying. Landing for me is quite nerve racking. Always has been. I think the plane is going to bump, skid, crash, flip burn etc. The last flight I was on I practiced the following technique. As the plane started its dissent, I did a deep breathing meditation practice and in it I contemplated my own death, right there and then and tried to completely accept it. As the plane landed, instead of looking out the window to make sure everything was running smoothly, I accepted that I had no control over what may happen and was open to all possibilities. And I felt great afterwards.
Another way you can practice, through meditation practice, is to imagine different ways that you might die (e.g., in your sleep, by a car, plane crash etc) and to realise that death (when it does happen) is like waking up from a dream.
I know this all sounds depressing. But it really isn't. It is quite inspiring. You just need to have an open mind about it, that's all. Accepting death is powerful and the way foreward.
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