Through the years as I?ve taken more of my practice off the mat and into my daily life I find the reality/thoughts of death and dying less anxiety filled, or maybe it?s natural as we grow older to accept the inevitable? Anyone else found exposure to Yogic, Buddhist or Hindu doctrine easing thoughts of earthly departure.
[QUOTE=ray_killeen;53161]Through the years as I’ve taken more of my practice off the mat and into my daily life I find the reality/thoughts of death and dying less anxiety filled, or maybe it’s natural as we grow older to accept the inevitable? Anyone else found exposure to Yogic, Buddhist or Hindu doctrine easing thoughts of earthly departure.[/QUOTE]
I’ve died so many times i’ve lost count. The last one I’m glad I don’t remember in detail. But I know what happened.
Always best to go Yogiclly in full consciousness.
[QUOTE=ray_killeen;53161]Through the years as I?ve taken more of my practice off the mat and into my daily life I find the reality/thoughts of death and dying less anxiety filled, or maybe it?s natural as we grow older to accept the inevitable? Anyone else found exposure to Yogic, Buddhist or Hindu doctrine easing thoughts of earthly departure.[/QUOTE]
Count me in! 
well on a serious note, Congratulations!!.. when one finds these thoughts being imbibed in every day life or behavior, it is a matter to rejoice. This means that one is coming more closer to the Absolute and realizes the transient nature of life on Earth. This is like a college graduation process.
This can also happen if the Kundalini energy is preparing to rise, hence signs of wise thinking. Any which ways, it is a matter of great joy as the shackles of numerous births and good karmas are finally bearing fruit. The more one meditates on ‘SOHAM’ (Thou art That), more of such feeling will become prominent. All the best!
Regards,
Shahvir
Some how early yogis figured out long ago what modern day science hypothesizes ?energy cannot be created or destroyed it simply changes forms? and the human spirit seems to have extraordinary energy. Wonder platform a healthy mind and body provides in serving the progress of spiritual potential.
Ray,
I believe it is not only profound but also critically important to contemplate one’s death on a daily basis, but not a the macabre, depressing fashion.
The contemplation of one’s mortality allows for a more full, directed, liberating, and joyful living, not to mention the opportunity to die without regret.
gordon
When I was a Buddhist, I used to focus on my death everyday. Since I’ve become normal, I focus on life instead. Every man dies, but not every man has lived. I make sure I live life the way I want to, and become the person I want to be. That way, I can die satisfied.
I think yoga and meditation help you embrace a more practical, if not natural, way of viewing death. The more you know your body, gain peace and tranquility from your practice, the more you just know that one day your body will need to retire. My achy knee and sore shoulder are subtle hints of what’s to come: in time, my body will no longer support my love of ashtanga; and in more time, my body will no longer support living. It’s a part of all of our path.
Live perfectly at every moment. Fill the self with kindness. Death provides a new body for the further evolution of soul. Don’t worry about getting a new cloth.
[QUOTE=YogiAdam;53198]When I was a Buddhist, I used to focus on my death everyday. Since I’ve become normal, I focus on life instead. Every man dies, but not every man has lived. I make sure I live life the way I want to, and become the person I want to be. That way, I can die satisfied.[/QUOTE]
Just a general thought to add to this Adam, mostly for the populace rather than for you specifically.
Contemplate. Focus. Obsess.
As with all things, too much of something is not at all profound. In fact too much of something shifts it from profound to destructive in just about every instance, with the exception of love.
If one does not have any sense of one’s own impermanence, one’s own mortality, then it would be challenging to “fully live”. The living which stems from the ignorance of impermanence is typically ego living. And while that is common, in fact normal and “accepted”, it does not do much for the individual soul, the collective soul, or the planet. It is, as it were, status quo. And of course status quo equals our disconnection from each other and thus conflict.
And there are some for whom that outcome is preferred or “okay”. For those who truly wish a better world, I’m not so sure.
All things in balance. For those who do not contemplate their impermanence, some contemplation. For those constantly “contemplating” their death, a bit less foot on the pedal.
[QUOTE=YogiAdam;53198]When I was a Buddhist, I used to focus on my death everyday. Since I’ve become normal, I focus on life instead. Every man dies, but not every man has lived. I make sure I live life the way I want to, and become the person I want to be. That way, I can die satisfied.[/QUOTE]
Since I’ve become normal…scream
[QUOTE=kareng;53284]Since I’ve become normal…scream[/QUOTE]
lol, yeah I couldn’t think of a word for it, so I took the cheeky option lol
[QUOTE=InnerAthlete;53249] The living which stems from the ignorance of impermanence is typically ego living. [/QUOTE]
Amen.
[QUOTE=InnerAthlete;53249]f one does not have any sense of one’s own impermanence, one’s own mortality, then it would be challenging to “fully live”. The living which stems from the ignorance of impermanence is typically ego living.[/QUOTE]
I have to respectfully disagree with this whole concept. EVERYONE knows they are dying. You certainly don’t need to practice your awareness of death. To me, that’s as useful as practicing your awareness of knowing that your heart beats. We already know our heart beats, we already know we are dying. To ‘practice’ knowing these things, makes no sense to me.
My other concern is that I feel there’s a certain hypocrisy in holding any view that discriminates ones own approach to life, toward another’s. To say ‘the way you live, is ego living’, to me, in itself is an egotistical thing to say. I think the ego only diminishes when we discontinue judging the way other people live, or comparing our views to others. If you hold some sort of favorability to your own views, how is that not egotistical? The only reason I am bothering to address this point, is because I see over and over again in the yoga world and in religious circles, these conflicting views of ‘we should all live in harmony’ AND ‘if you don’t hold my view, you are wrong’. As soon as you hold a view that another individual is living a life based on ignorance, we have become guilty of ignorance yourself. You can’t find harmony through separation and comparison.
YogiAdam,
“EVERYONE knows they are dying.”
It is not really the case, even with yourself. And because death has been something which has been repressed from almost every angle and corner in the society, it is very natural that most have become oblivious to the fact. Ever since a very young age, it has been repressed, nobody talks about it, nobody even wants to hear that word. Just upon hearing that word, and immediately it strikes great discomfort. That is natural, nobody wants to die. So it becomes simply blocked out your vision - and the reality is that sooner or later one is going to have to confront the reality. Either one can deal with it now in this very moment, or continue postponing the matter. And unfortunately, most people only deal with it while they are preparing to enter into the grave, and the whole span of life has already passed, and one finds that one is just as discontented and unsatisfied as one has always been. And now -one is entering into the unknown, as ignorant as the day that one was born. This is when certain questions which one may have never bothered about before, immediately start flaring up to the surface - that what is the meaning of one’s life ? Has anything in one’s life meant anythign at all, or was it all absolutely meaningless ? And deep within oneself - there are a thousadn and one unfulfilled dreams and desires - now all rendered irrelevant. But rather than having come to a contentment with the inescapable, of understanding death through and through, which would have been capable of warping one’s whole perception of life - one had wasted it on all kinds of things which have not managed to bring any contentment to one’s being. That is why most people die in great fear, anxiety, panic, worry - and the way that one dies is going to be a direct reflection of the way that one has been living. If you have been living life, clinging from one thing to another, always focused upon future becoming, always projecting some desire far away into the future - then the same clinging activity of the mind is going to be there at the time of death, the same pattern continues. If living life with a strong identification with the body, then naturally the dissolving of the body is bound to trigger fear. If one has become too identified with the mind, again, it is bound to trigger fear because everything that you have gathered into this mind has just been the memories you have accumulated in life. Only one who has come to a meditative consciousness is capable of traveling thorugh this life without identifying with anything in particular which arises in one’s experience. One who lives in such a state is capable of going through the process of death without it leaving even a single wound upon your being, one can die in absolute contentment. In fact, even death can become a meditative experience. This is why in the yogic sciences tremendous attention has been invested into how a human being should die, because the tendencies of the mind during the process of death has a great influence over the tendencies of the energy which continue beyond life.
No, everybody does not know that they are dying, most people have blocked the idea of death completely from their minds. Man is far more interested in comfort and security, and the reality of death threatens one’s sense of comfort and security. One lives as though one has an infinite series of tomorrows available, one has forgotten completely that one day one is going to die. Perhaps at the most, it may be just an unpleasant idea in the mind, or something that you occasionally remember intellectually but the reality of it does not yet strike you to the very core. If it does, then it is even possible that it may trigger your enlightenment.
There are different levels of knowing. You (and anyone else) would probably say that you’re aware of the fact that we should be kind to others. Then why do we often fail to be kind? It’s much easier to say that we know something than it is to understand it and assimilate it as a truth.
Just looking at people’s reactions to death can tell you that we’re not prepared for it. Does anyone say “my mom just died” in the same tone they say “we’re out of bread”? If we already knew would occur, why does shock and grief follow after a death? Why do we have to say “pass away” instead of just saying someone died?
The first thing that seems egotistical about people living their lives the way they want to is that the main idea is pleasing the self. That’s kind of the definition of egotistical. I don’t find it egotistical to examine the way in which we live our lives and try to determine what will most benefit the world. All of our lives are based on ignorance, and we try like hell to rise up from it.
Simply speaking, our master is teaching us to look at death like a holiday of the soul, when we really have messed up our lives.
“Death” is just a convenient word, it can be used to refer to the process of cessation of the activity of the body. Otherwise, it is simply a concept, and idea - just as birth is a concept and an idea. Useful, but useless in awakening a penetrating clarity into things as they are. To see things as they are, they have to be seen without the prejudices of the mind. The ways of the mind are always short-sighted, it can never reveal a holsitic understanding. Our ideas of birth and death have always been seen just from the perspective of the intellect, which is effective in it’s own ways, but an insufficient instrument in seeing anything else beyond it’s own interpretations.
In birth, there is no arrival. In death, there is no departing. And those who continue thinking of birth as beginning and death as an end are just clinging to ideas which have no roots in reality.
[QUOTE=AmirMourad;53359]YogiAdam,
“EVERYONE knows they are dying.”
It is not really the case, even with yourself. And because death has been something which has been repressed from almost every angle and corner in the society, it is very natural that most have become oblivious to the fact. Ever since a very young age, it has been repressed, nobody talks about it, nobody even wants to hear that word. Just upon hearing that word, and immediately it strikes great discomfort. That is natural, nobody wants to die. So it becomes simply blocked out your vision - and the reality is that sooner or later one is going to have to confront the reality. Either one can deal with it now in this very moment, or continue postponing the matter. And unfortunately, most people only deal with it while they are preparing to enter into the grave, and the whole span of life has already passed, and one finds that one is just as discontented and unsatisfied as one has always been. And now -one is entering into the unknown, as ignorant as the day that one was born. This is when certain questions which one may have never bothered about before, immediately start flaring up to the surface - that what is the meaning of one’s life ? Has anything in one’s life meant anythign at all, or was it all absolutely meaningless ? And deep within oneself - there are a thousadn and one unfulfilled dreams and desires - now all rendered irrelevant. But rather than having come to a contentment with the inescapable, of understanding death through and through, which would have been capable of warping one’s whole perception of life - one had wasted it on all kinds of things which have not managed to bring any contentment to one’s being. That is why most people die in great fear, anxiety, panic, worry - and the way that one dies is going to be a direct reflection of the way that one has been living. If you have been living life, clinging from one thing to another, always focused upon future becoming, always projecting some desire far away into the future - then the same clinging activity of the mind is going to be there at the time of death, the same pattern continues. If living life with a strong identification with the body, then naturally the dissolving of the body is bound to trigger fear. If one has become too identified with the mind, again, it is bound to trigger fear because everything that you have gathered into this mind has just been the memories you have accumulated in life. Only one who has come to a meditative consciousness is capable of traveling thorugh this life without identifying with anything in particular which arises in one’s experience. One who lives in such a state is capable of going through the process of death without it leaving even a single wound upon your being, one can die in absolute contentment. In fact, even death can become a meditative experience. This is why in the yogic sciences tremendous attention has been invested into how a human being should die, because the tendencies of the mind during the process of death has a great influence over the tendencies of the energy which continue beyond life.
No, everybody does not know that they are dying, most people have blocked the idea of death completely from their minds. Man is far more interested in comfort and security, and the reality of death threatens one’s sense of comfort and security. One lives as though one has an infinite series of tomorrows available, one has forgotten completely that one day one is going to die. Perhaps at the most, it may be just an unpleasant idea in the mind, or something that you occasionally remember intellectually but the reality of it does not yet strike you to the very core. If it does, then it is even possible that it may trigger your enlightenment.[/QUOTE]
What planet am on on??! How could anyone not know that they are dying?? We learn from a very early age that we are all going to die. I’ve been to plenty of funerals, including my dad’s, and I’m pretty certain I’ll have my own funeral sometime in the future… preferable not to near future, but sooner than I’d like, I’m sure. This is a very, very bizarre doctrine, this whole ‘contemplate your own death’ thing. I focus on my life BECAUSE I’m going to die. I don’t need to ‘remind’ myself of death, the same way I don’t need to remind myself that I breath. Maybe if you haven’t learnt that you are one day going to die, then sure, maybe spend a few moments becoming familiar with this fact. But once you have figured out that you are going to die (which I certainly hope every adult in the world is aware of this fact of life), then I think it’s time to focus on your life. Otherwise you’ll die without having ever lived. There are two things that a certain in life… death and taxes. Anyone who is unaware of these certainties must be living under a rock.
YogiAdam,
“We learn from a very early age that we are all going to die”
That is only as an intellectual idea. For most, the reality has not really penetrated deep into one’s being, otherwise one would naturally be aware that the whole existence is impermanent. But thinking about it, and living it are entirely different. To live it - you do not have to consciously keep pondering about it in the mind - it just means that you are living with a certain natural intuition. And that is the fundamental difference.
“I don’t need to ‘remind’ myself of death, the same way I don’t need to remind myself that I breath”
That would be the case for one who has already come to an understanding of death and has transcended the fear of death. For such a one, there is no need to be “reminded” of the impermanence of things, such an understanding is already there on an intuitive level and the insight already triggered some transformation in one’s consciousness. A penetrating insight is a bit like a wound or a scar, it leaves it’s mark on your being. Even if you try to wipe it out, it is already too late.
Otherwise, for one who is living out of unawareness, it is not really the case, one is completely unaware of the reality of death - not just as an idea, but as a living reality. For that, you will either have to come to a direct experience of it to realize it’s implications, or psychologically go through a death-like process and realize it’s implications. It’s implications are enormous - because it is going to threaten the ego thouroughly in such a way that the ego is going to try and resist at almost any cost. Everything physical that you have accumulated in life including your own personality, nature will not allow you to take even a particle of it with you, the skin is shed just as a snake sheds it’s skin.
The will to survive is a very ancient instinct in man. Even amongst the most wise, many have not managed to transcend the will to survive - it is so deeply connected and has been deeply connected to the body for centuries, that to move beyond it, your mind will not cooperate easily. This is another reason why death as an experience has been terrifying for most.
We all know that we will go down one day. If we know when you can’t live your life to the fullest. Also, do not think about death at the time of living. My uncle said he will have good time in another 2 months but he died before that. Death is chasing us and we are cheating it everyday. As we grow we used to think that we are slowing our pace and the death gonna reach us… We will live the life better not regret.