"Watched" The Tibetan book of Dead (Bardo Thodol) - a presentation on the subject. Simply beyond words. A commendable attempt to capture the subject the book so beautifully enlightens you through. I remember reading halfway through the book a good 5-6 years back. And then I realized I was not ready to appreciate or understand the meaning in its entirety. Now after a long time, knowing my interest in the subject, Gauri picked up this DVD from the library.
As always Death and Dying have been my pleasant interests. I have never viewed death or dying as something akin to obliteration or oblivion. I do not know if it is because I don’t want to face it that way or if it is the conditioning of my religion. But it is something I like and I want to believe in. To me, Death and dying is very similar to the sleep we fall into at night and then wake up in the morning. Its just that the experience and the associations may be on a different scale and plane. But the approach should be similar. If we are not prepared for the day that shall dawn at the night we fall asleep, we wake up directionless and just trudge on. Just as it is important to know/prepare/plan/act today to be ready for the tomorrow that we seek, it is important to know/prepare/plan/act and get ready for the inevitable continuum of life, death.
We are somehow conditioned to view our identity only as our body, our relationships, our desires, our aspirations. And because we do that, we are limited by what we think. Of course, it is on us; what and how we think about the different projections of ourselves. We have fears, apprehensions, our portrayal of joy, happiness, our definitions of insecurities, our yardsticks of success and failure. When we (think of it as the body) die, all associations with our body are severed. Be it painful or pleasing. It appears to be painful. I mean, imagine we lose the sensation of touch, the ability of sight slowly withers, we cant "see" our family and friends anymore, our ability to hear slowly dwindles as we progress through dying, our sense of smell dies down. Imagine how would you view yourself as someone who cant hear, who cant see, who cant feel a touch, who cant hear or who cant smell. Now, while it appears very painful and very depressing, imagine someone in severe physical pain - someone who is handicapped, someone who is ailing, someone who is in pain for some years. As the body dies, the senses wither, all this pain goes. But with the pain, the gross identity of the person leaves as well. Now, for some of us, this identity, characterized by different things our life has led us through, might be very important, something very dear to us. We may have a good life, good family, be financially well off, a loving spouse, a child we love very dearly and a social standing we are proud of :). Why would we want to give it up. Sure, we are attached to it. But dying is inevitable. Like it or not, the day will come, we will breathe our last and our gross aspects will detach itself and will be on the way out. Whether we like our existence and our identity or not, we will have to leave it. If we are prepared in terms of detachment, in terms of what's to come next, our transition will be something filled with awareness.
The different ashrams of life help us prepare and lead us through this path. The joy of the Brahmacharya ashram - childhood, learning in grace of an illumined teacher; the grihastashashram, the vanprasthashram and eventually the sanyasashram. We are fulfilling the duties of different stages of life, realizing our purpose, fulfilling it, and then as we pass through the different phases, we eventually ready ourselves for the final transition. Vanprasthashram and Sanyasashram lead us and ready us through the transition that is Dying.
What we will carry with us in life will follow us in death. Fear, Hope, Love, Hatred, Faith, everything. Our religions are not purposeless. Their aim is to provide a framework for us to lead a life that follows the best practices experienced by seers and hence is an assurance of a life filled with the positives. Thereby preparing the baggage that we shall carry with us in our death, until being born again to fulfill what's been pending as in the baggage.
As always Death and Dying have been my pleasant interests. I have never viewed death or dying as something akin to obliteration or oblivion. I do not know if it is because I don’t want to face it that way or if it is the conditioning of my religion. But it is something I like and I want to believe in. To me, Death and dying is very similar to the sleep we fall into at night and then wake up in the morning. Its just that the experience and the associations may be on a different scale and plane. But the approach should be similar. If we are not prepared for the day that shall dawn at the night we fall asleep, we wake up directionless and just trudge on. Just as it is important to know/prepare/plan/act today to be ready for the tomorrow that we seek, it is important to know/prepare/plan/act and get ready for the inevitable continuum of life, death.
We are somehow conditioned to view our identity only as our body, our relationships, our desires, our aspirations. And because we do that, we are limited by what we think. Of course, it is on us; what and how we think about the different projections of ourselves. We have fears, apprehensions, our portrayal of joy, happiness, our definitions of insecurities, our yardsticks of success and failure. When we (think of it as the body) die, all associations with our body are severed. Be it painful or pleasing. It appears to be painful. I mean, imagine we lose the sensation of touch, the ability of sight slowly withers, we cant "see" our family and friends anymore, our ability to hear slowly dwindles as we progress through dying, our sense of smell dies down. Imagine how would you view yourself as someone who cant hear, who cant see, who cant feel a touch, who cant hear or who cant smell. Now, while it appears very painful and very depressing, imagine someone in severe physical pain - someone who is handicapped, someone who is ailing, someone who is in pain for some years. As the body dies, the senses wither, all this pain goes. But with the pain, the gross identity of the person leaves as well. Now, for some of us, this identity, characterized by different things our life has led us through, might be very important, something very dear to us. We may have a good life, good family, be financially well off, a loving spouse, a child we love very dearly and a social standing we are proud of :). Why would we want to give it up. Sure, we are attached to it. But dying is inevitable. Like it or not, the day will come, we will breathe our last and our gross aspects will detach itself and will be on the way out. Whether we like our existence and our identity or not, we will have to leave it. If we are prepared in terms of detachment, in terms of what's to come next, our transition will be something filled with awareness.
The different ashrams of life help us prepare and lead us through this path. The joy of the Brahmacharya ashram - childhood, learning in grace of an illumined teacher; the grihastashashram, the vanprasthashram and eventually the sanyasashram. We are fulfilling the duties of different stages of life, realizing our purpose, fulfilling it, and then as we pass through the different phases, we eventually ready ourselves for the final transition. Vanprasthashram and Sanyasashram lead us and ready us through the transition that is Dying.
What we will carry with us in life will follow us in death. Fear, Hope, Love, Hatred, Faith, everything. Our religions are not purposeless. Their aim is to provide a framework for us to lead a life that follows the best practices experienced by seers and hence is an assurance of a life filled with the positives. Thereby preparing the baggage that we shall carry with us in our death, until being born again to fulfill what's been pending as in the baggage.
1 comment:
u r talking abt birth and rebirth cycle...what about Moksha and Kalyan? How about making THIS life is your LAST life...???...
"What we are is God's Gift to Us and What we become is Our Gift to God!"
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