Death is a perfect insult
many people try to be numb to this suffering. In the rush of detail that fills our life, we may find temporary distraction. In the beliefs we hold, we look for consolation. but turning from the reality of love itself, even through distraction or belief, is turning from the only possibility of going beyond our mortal predicament.
somehow, we must receive the "insult" and still grow in love.
there are times when the loss of a loved one brings us face to face with this starkness. then our strategies of distraction & consolation no longer work. we feel again the raw fact that has always been our situation. even the many small endings in our life (& the beginnings as well) remind us that no thing and no one will last, no matter how much we love them.
whatever we believe about death (& what happens after death), its inescapable nature is not in debate. but knowing that death is a universal requirement does not end our predicament - it only pushes our need to understand what life is all about, what its purpose is, to the fore.
Wisdom About Death
the mystery of what it is to be "dead", what part of us (if any) survives, whether reincarnation is true & how it works - these are universal human concerns. such questions contain the seed of wisdom about human nature, our meaning & our purpose.
these questions can move us toward a critically important understanding, one that can & should be the foundation of our lives.
"love is a great knowledge in human intimacies, but it is a terrible knowledge, simultaneously. love moves you beyond the usual insult of mortality, but it takes place in the context of mortality. at the same time that love relieves you, in some respects, of the insult of mortality, it also makes the suffering of mortality more profound."
"so, to love any one is a terrible "problem" - friend, intimate, child, mother, father. to love at all is to be confronted with the terrible nature of mortality."
"the knowledge of death, however it may come to you through life's experience, should become the wisdom of ego-transcending practice - because you understand that death is not any different from all the other limited conditions of existence."
The Heart of Understanding
death is utterly acceptable to consciousness & life. there has been endless time of numberless deaths, but neither consciousness nor life has ceased to arise. the felt quality & cycle to death has not modified the fragility of flowers, even the flowers within the human body.
one must cease to live in a superficial and divided way, seeking & demanding consciousness & life in the present apparent form, avoiding & resisting what appears to be the end of consciousness & life in death.
there is only the constant knowledge & enjoyment of the heart, moment to moment, through the instant of all conditions of appearance and disappearance. of this i am perfectly certain. i am that.
"life is terrible. therefore, people allow themselves to be deluded by the immediate pleasures they receive. they indulge in such delusion as a means of ignoring reality - and they must not do that. the way of real liberation must be fully communicated and fully developed. It is a divine spiritual way. It requires deep breath, and you stay alive only to the point that staying alive is appropriate."
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just felt like typing this out, got some help from a website & i think i talked too much. hahaha.. shall stop now.
