Death
When this post was written it was actually on my nation’s birthday but I felt intrigued and compelled to write about this topic when I woke up in the morning. So hack, here it is:
When we talk about death, we always associate with sadness, grief, and the imagery of rain pouring down on the dull fate-stricken day. Sad isn’t it?
Yet the concept and possibility of death give a whole new perspective about life. Imagine if we can live forever and ever, what meaning then has life got to hold?
New beginning
In traditional Tarot, the eighteenth card is the Death card. Interpretations of Death card usually are not always lamenting and harping on an actual physical death or the end of something. In fact it symbolizes change, a cycle of death and rebirth. It can simply mean an end of a chapter in a person’s life.
With death always comes life. With death always comes start.
The significance is how we react to death. Do you greet with open arms? Do you turn away? Or do you sit there frozen in your grief focusing on what is lost and not seeing what is coming?
This Person Could Die Tonight
In my Zen practice, one of the exercises we do is several times a day, when we are talking to someone either in person or on phone, we silently remind ourselves, “This person could die tonight. This may be the last time I will be with them.”
“This person could die tonight. This may be the last time I will be with them.”
This exercise may seem a bit depressing at first, but soon it will be discovered that we become aware of our own mortality and that of the person we are talking to, we listen and pay attention in a different way. Our heart opens as we hold truth that this could be the very last time we will see this person alive.
Although sickness, old age, and death come to everyone who has been born into this world, we often carry our lives as if this will not be true for us or those we care about.
This practice of the reminder of death helps us break through our denial that life is fragile and that death could come at any moment. All it takes is a slight change in our blood potassium level, a virulent bacteria or virus, a drunk driver, or a change in electrical pattern in our heart.
Of course we do not want to fill our mind with constant morbid thoughts about mortality, but this awareness of the fragility of life and impermanence aids us to cherish the people we encounter everyday.
We fall asleep every night with the confidence that we will awaken. When we realise that we too could die tonight, we can become more present and more alive within each moment of our life.
