Fear of death

[Jundo]

We all suffer from a terminal condition: life. Dying is part of that, and is natural. Like other fears, it only has power over you if you let it have power over you. Death will come when the time is right; until then, don't think about or obsess about death. Instead, pay attention to life.

Gassho--

--JimH (SatToday!)

Thank you.

Gassho, J

SatToday

[Ugrok]

Thanks a lot.

Gassho,

Uggy,

Sat today

[Jishin]

Thank you JimH.

Gasho, Jishin, _/st\_

[Muirghein]

Since as long as I can remember I have been fascinated by death. The idea that we came from Nothing and will return to Nothing. What is Nothing? Have you ever explored Nothingness, from a scientific level? That place from which all life springs. I meditate on this, I explore it in my work.

The Key is Reframing - "changing the conceptual and/or emotional viewpoint in relation to which a situation is experienced and placing it in a different frame that fits the "facts" of a concrete situation equally well, thereby changing its entire meaning."

I would like to share two recommendations, a video and a book that may help you reframe the way you see and perceive death and separation:
The Beauty of Nothingness
And the Book
The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying




Sat today

[Jundo]

I would like to share two recommendations, a video and a book that may help you reframe the way you see and perceive death and separation:

Alan Watts. Lovely. The "emptiness" or "nothingness" of our Way is neither empty nor nothing. In fact, it is the Poleless Pole and the center and all the arms of the Timeless Spiral here ...

http://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?15044-sitting-zazen-timeless-time&p=192630&viewfull=1#post192630

And the Book
The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying

Ah, but most Tibetan descriptions of detail visions of rebirth found there are likely (anything is possible of course) claptrap and hogwash. Fantasy, although even fantasy has some value as human wish and myth. **

Gassho, Jundo

SatToday

** NOTE FROM JUNDO: My criticism was my own misreading of the title of the book mentioned and a controversial, much misunderstood work called the "Tibetan Book of the Dead." Please see two posts below. Apologies for the confusion.

[Muirghein]

Hello Jundo and Thank you, I agree with different terminology that shares very similar roots To clarify I recommended the book not for the Tibetan's beliefs on death and rebirth (we cannot claim to know anything of what comes beyond life) but because of the beauty in terms of insights the book on how we think of death. I often feel that hidden beneath all the 'noise' is a little gem of truth in there. Let me quote what particularly struck me, it's after he describes the death of someone who was fearing death vs. the death of someone who had spiritually practiced meditation and attained some sense of peace in life free of fear.

Below I just want to quote with no additional words a few passages to understand the pieces of gems hidden within:

The death of Samten taught me the purpose of spiritual
practice; Lama Tseten's death taught me that it is not unusual
for practitioners of his caliber to conceal their remarkable qual-
ities during their lifetime. Sometimes, in fact, they show them
only once, at the moment of death. I understood, even as a
child, that there was a striking difference between the death of
Samten and that of Lama Tseten, and I realized that it was the
difference between the death of a good monk who had prac-
ticed in his life and that of a much more realized practitioner.
Samten died in an ordinary way and in pain, yet with the
confidence of faith; Lama Tseten's death was a display of spiri-
tual mastery.

So I began to face death and its implications very young. I
could never have imagined then how many kinds of death
there were to follow, one heaped upon another. The death
that was the tragic loss of my country, Tibet, after the Chinese
occupation. The death that is exile. The death of losing every-
thing my family and I possessed. My family, Lakar Tsang, had
been among the wealthiest in Tibet. Since the fourteenth cen-
tury it had been famous as one of the most important bene-
factors of Buddhism, supporting the teaching of Buddha and
helping the great masters with their work. 2
The most shattering death of all was yet to come—that of
my master Jamyang Khyentse. Losing him I felt I had lost the
ground of my existence. It was in 1959, the year of the fall of
Tibet. For the Tibetans, my master's death was a second dev-
astating blow. And for Tibet, it marked the end of an era.

When I first came to the West, I was shocked by the con-
trast between the attitudes to death I had been brought up
with and those I now found. For all its technological achieve-
ments, modem Western society has no real understanding of
death or what happens in death or after death.
I learned that people today are taught to deny death, and
taught that it means nothing but annihilation and loss. That
means that most of the world lives either in denial of death or
in terror of it. Even talking about death is considered morbid,
and many people believe that simply mentioning death is to
risk wishing it upon ourselves.
Others look on death with a naive, thoughtless cheerful-
ness, thinking that for some unknown reason death will work
out all right for them, and that it is nothing to worry about.
When I think of them, I am reminded of what one Tibetan
master says: "People often make the mistake of being frivolous
about death and think, 'Oh well, death happens to everybody.
It's not a big deal, it's natural. I'll be fine.' That's a nice theory
until one is dying." 3
Of these two attitudes toward death, one views death as
something to scurry away from and the other as something
that will just take care of itself. How far they both are from
understanding death's true significance!

According to the wisdom of Buddha, we can actually use
our lives to prepare for death. We do not have to wait for the
painful death of someone close to us or the shock of terminal
illness to force us into looking at our lives. Nor are we con-
demned to go out empty-handed at death to meet the
unknown. We can begin, here and now, to find meaning in
our lives. We can make of every moment an opportunity to
change and to prepare—wholeheartedly, precisely, and with
peace of mind—for death and eternity.
In the Buddhist approach, life and death are seen as one
whole, where death is the beginning of another chapter of life.
Death is a mirror in which the entire meaning of life is
reflected.
This view is central to the teachings of the most ancient
school of Tibetan Buddhism. Many of you will have heard of
the Tibetan Book of the Dead. What I am seeking to do in this
book is to explain and expand the Tibetan Book of the Dead, to
cover not only death but life as well, and to fill out in detail
the whole teaching of which the Tibetan Book of the Dead is
only a part. In this wonderful teaching, we find the whole of
life and death presented together as a series of constantly
changing transitional realities known as bardos.

Now of course he goes on to say that it is because we believe this life is the only one or what Death is varies based on our understanding of it, but there are many ways to interpret what those things mean, and that can be filtered out, but that isn't the point, if the text is approached with an open non-judging heart and we're quiet we can hear through all the noise and glean insight, little gems. And that is why I as someone who does not dismiss or support any idea of what happens after death (agnostic omnist) referenced the book because there was beauty and gems hidden beneath his noise as you yourself has pointed out with different words, "Even fantasy has some value as human wish"

Many Thanks for your insight Jundo

Morgan
Sat Today

[Jundo]

Thank you Morgan. There seem to be some wise and lovely comments in the book.

My apologies, as I misread what you wrote as "Tibetan Book of the Dead".

I just caution folks whenever there is any mention of the "Tibetan Book of the Dead" and the system of Bardo and rebirth supposedly spelled out there. It is something very much misunderstood in the West, and very unfortunate.

A history of the Tibetan Book of the Dead that I recommend to anyone wonky enough to be interested in such topics is this, by the great Tibetologist Donald Lopez ...

"The Tibetan Book of the Dead": A Biography

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2011/08/14/books/book-reviews/blavatskys-book-of-the-dead/#.WHeZPxuLTIU

In 2005 a journalist telephoned the eminent scholar of Buddhism and Tibetan Studies, Donald S. Lopez, Jr., and asked him whether “The Tibetan Book of the Dead” was the most important work in Tibetan Buddhism.

“No,” Lopez replied.

“Do all Tibetans own a copy?”

“No.”

“Have all Tibetans read it?”

Again, “no.”

The journalist makes a final attempt:

“Have all Tibetans heard of it?”

Lopez: “Probably not.”

The problem, as Lopez says he would have explained if the reporter had stayed on the line, is that “the work by Walter Evans-Wentz titled ‘The Tibetan Book of the Dead’ is not really Tibetan, is not really a book, and it is not really about death.”

Gassho, Jundo

SatToday

[Makkusu]

Hello Ugrok,

a few days ago, I read something that stuck with me. "Each day when you wake up, you imagine a little bird on your shoulder that says 'Is today the day? Is it the last day I'll be on earth?'" It seems to be a buddhist practice, maybe it's like the 5 remembrances. Although those five didn't really stuck with me, in the morning, lying in bed and thinking "Okay, this could be my last day. Let's get up" really helps me. Throughout the day, whenever I almost want to say something I don't really want to say, I think "If I would drop dead tomorrow morning, why lying to myself?". Maybe you can change your perspective on this difficult topic.

Gassho, Max
#sattoday

[JimH]

Thanks, Makkusu.

I'd actually go with another quote, myself: "Today is the first day of the rest of your life.". Each day *could* be your last day on earth....but each day is a new beginning as well. Waking up in the morning is like being born again anew each day; you have the power to change whatever you want to, or at least start the process, each day. The problem is, most of us (myself definitely included!) tend to overlook that, and even though we "wake up" each morning, we still sleepwalk through the day.

You prepare for dying by being alive.....you live to the fullest by being aware that you will some day die. To quote from "Fight Club": "You have to realize that someday, you will die. Until you know that, you are useless."

Maybe not *useless*, but you get the idea. Until you accept death as part of life, and take away its power, you can't truly live.

Gassho--

--JimH (SatToday!)

[Shokai]

and then there was the Buddhist Coroner that lost his job because he reported the cause of death in all cases was 'birth.'


gassho,



sattoday

[Mp]

and then there was the Buddhist Coroner that lost his job because he reported the cause of death in all cases was 'birth.'


gassho,



sattoday

[emoji122] Such a smart Buddhist Coroner. =)

Gassho
Shingen

s@today

Sent from my LG-H812 using Tapatalk

[JimH]

I love that.....birth is the cause of death. Perfect!

I heard a story once about a guy that had fallen off of a ladder and broken his leg. When the paramedic was treating him, the paramedic asked if the man had any allergies. "Gravity, apparently." was the man's answer.

Gassho--

--JimH (SatToday!)

[Ugrok]

you have the power to change whatever you want to, or at least start the process, each day.

Hello !

I like this idea, but how do you know what's good ? How do you know what to do or not do ?
Also, there are some things that you cannot decide ; if you wake up sad, you can try to force yourself to feel happy, but most of the time it won't really "work" and it will have the opposite effect, for example !

Thanks for all the good questions, advice, and reading references !

Gassho,

Uggy,

Sat Today

[Kyonin]

Death is not scary.

Mara and living forever and in ignorance. That IS scary!

Gassho,

Kyonin
#SatToday

[Jundo]