Preparing For Death - We Are All Mortal

[Dodo]

@Prabhaker don't forget these are only your beliefs. You have no way of verifying that an unconscious man will meet the faith you have in mind for him.

It's also silly to say that to the unconscious man death is only darkness and no light ahead... Maybe their image of death is such. 

The end of all efforts, ambitions and desires? So you too believe like me, that death brings full enlightenment to everyone.

 

[Prabhaker]

35 minutes ago, Dodoster said:

death brings full enlightenment to everyone

Death can bring full enlightenment , if a person dies consciously. Tibetans have done much work on art of dying consciously. The Bardo teachings are Tibet’s greatest contribution to humanity.

There is no need to believe anything, as your meditation will ripen, you will know that entering into meditation is an experience of death, before death.

[Dodo]

1 hour ago, Prabhaker said:

Death can bring full enlightenment , if a person dies consciously. Tibetans have done much work on art of dying consciously. The Bardo teachings are Tibet’s greatest contribution to humanity.

There is no need to believe anything, as your meditation will ripen, you will know that entering into meditation is an experience of death, before death.

Well then if it will happen it will, but its just beliefs. Bardo, all of it. Whoever is interested sure, go for it, but for me there's no need to speculate. 

I wasn't born,  I will not die, I will be freed from illusion and I'll be what I am now, but without the mud and clowd. This is my belief as a Holographic entity typing in a forum. As the doll that my true self is playing with.

 

[Guivs]

 

@Dodoster Are you always lucid during dreams and sleep ? 

 

 

Edited February 27, 2017 by Guivs

[Dodo]

34 minutes ago, Guivs said:

 

@Dodoster Are you always lucid during dreams and sleep ? 

 

 

Oh my God, your words are like a portal to an awakening experience

ps: My insight from the awakening, Im currently beginning work on understanding how to be lucid (what it feels like to be lucid) from my real life experience of being aware and want to transpose it in my dreams. Hence creating something previously unconscious conscious.

Edited February 27, 2017 by Dodoster

[Guivs]

Well, in my experience,falling asleep seems similar to the process of dying. 

[Dodo]

2 minutes ago, Guivs said:

Well, in my experience,falling asleep seems similar to the process of dying. 

That would explain my love for death, because I love falling asleep, I just ease into it, just like with skiing! It's like the best, but I enjoy dreaming A LOT too. But I have lost consciousness in there recently.......

Edited February 27, 2017 by Dodoster

[Guivs]

@Dodoster Yes, let's be always open to life and all its many experiences and never hide from anything either pleasurable or painful

The ideology I try to follow is "whatever happens, turn towards it and be open to it"

Edited February 27, 2017 by Guivs

[Echoes]

@Prabhaker What do you think happens then when we die consciously? Are we just choosing the next movie to watch? And when we die unconsciously we get reborn according to our tendencies/karma?

[Prabhaker]

1 hour ago, Echoes said:

What do you think happens then when we die consciously?

The separation of the body and the consciousness is death. Because there is this separation, it is meaningless to call it death -- it is merely a loosening, a breaking of a connection. It is nothing more than changing clothes. So, one who dies with awareness never really dies, hence the question of death never arises for him. He won't even call death an illusion. He won't even say who dies and who does not die. He will simply state that what we called life up to yesterday was merely an association. That association has broken. Now a new life has begun which, in the former sense, is not an association. Perhaps it is a new connection, a new journey.

 When a man dies in perfect awareness, his next birth will be perfectly aware. If you can die in this life fully aware, not becoming unconscious when you die; you remain perfectly conscious, you see every phase of death, you hear every step and you remain perfectly aware that the body is dying; the mind is disappearing and you remain perfectly aware; then suddenly you see that you are not in the body and consciousness has left the body. You can see the dead body lying there and you are floating around the body. 

Whatsoever happens in death will happen in birth because death is nothing but death on this side -- on that side it is birth. It is the same door. If you enter the door consciously, you will get out of the door consciously. Death is this side of the door, birth is that side of the door.

Your next life will have a totally different flavor. And a person can be born only once after he has died consciously -- only one more life. 

So the first and the most important thing in life is to prepare for death. And what is the way to prepare for death?

Moment-to-moment awareness is the way... If you can remain moment to moment aware, you will become perfectly clear that there is something in you which is beyond death, which cannot be burned, cannot be destroyed, which is indestructible. And to know that rock of indestructibility within you is the beginning of a new life.

1 hour ago, Echoes said:

Are we just choosing the next movie to watch? And when we die unconsciously we get reborn according to our tendencies/karma?

When we die unconsciously we get reborn according to our tendencies/karma. 

When consciousness has dawned you act for the first time, you don’t react and that action is beyond the law of karma. The law of karma applies only to the unconscious being. The man of awareness has absolute freedom. No law binds him, no law defines him. He’s as vast as the sky, he’s as infinite as the sky. His freedom is absolute. 

If you are awakened, you have transcended your Karma. 

[Echoes]

@Prabhaker Thanks! I always wonder though how things like "only 1 more life" or "enlightenment/liberation is the end of samsara" fit in with the fact of eternity? If there is only eternity, we should all have infinite cycles of rebirths and liberations "behind" us (or rather simultaneously in the NOW? since time does not exist) we exist NOW, after "eternal amount of time" has passed, why should something be different after another "amount" of time has passed? why should liberation be the end of birth forever, and not a new cycle begin "someday"?

Also, reports from near death experiences tell that they maintained consciousness, and I don't think those where all people who lived a conscious life. How would you explain this? That they where not dead completely?

[Prabhaker]

8 minutes ago, Echoes said:

I always wonder though how things like "only 1 more life" or "enlightenment/liberation is the end of samsara" fit in with the fact of eternity?

Enlightenment is only the beginning. There is infinity…to go far. Enlightenment is only a door, and then there is an unending existence, an unending evolution, expansion.

The people who are unconscious, for them enlightenment is the goal; but they are not aware of the fact that enlightenment is only a door. Once you have reached it, then a new kind of pilgrimage starts. Up to this door you were an entity; beyond this door you will not be an entity, you will be just pure consciousness without a body, without a mind. You will be just a fragrance which will go on spreading all over existence.

And the fragrance is luminous. It is full of awareness. It knows itself and it knows the whole existence around it – not as separate but part, a kind of at-one-ment. It is the universe and the universe is it; there is no division, no duality. Now the observer becomes the observed, the seer becomes the seen. He is both. 

9 minutes ago, Echoes said:

why should liberation be the end of birth forever, and not a new cycle begin "someday"?

Just as you enter beyond enlightenment into nothingness, there must be a possibility of coming out of nothingness back into form, back into existence—renewed, refreshed, luminous—on a totally different plane. 

In the East we have a conception of circles of existence and non-existence, just like day and night. Creation is followed by de-creation, everything goes into nothingness, just as day is followed by night and everything goes into darkness. And the period is going to be the same: as long as the creation is, so is the resting period going to be; and again there will be a creation of a higher order.

And this will go on from eternity to eternity — creation, de-creation, creation, again de-creation—but each time the morning is more beautiful. Each dawn is more colorful, more alive; the birds are singing better, the flowers are bigger, with more fragrance.

And the East has a tremendous courage of accepting the idea that this will go on forever and forever. There has never been any beginning, and there will be no end.

16 minutes ago, Echoes said:

Also, reports from near death experiences tell that they maintained consciousness, and I don't think those where all people who lived a conscious life. How would you explain this? That they where not dead completely?

It can be out of body experience near death, death means connection between body and consciousness is broken, you can not enter in same body again after death, it no longer remains suitable. 

[LifeandDeath]

@Prabhaker wow, very powerful indeed. as I become more and more conscious, your passage has provided me with more reassurance that I'm following the right path, an eternal one, and that death is just a stage of conscious evolution, that now I'm starting to even look forward to. this is very different to the fear perspective I had when starting this thread. 

thanks everyone for working with me on this... I'm feeling a lot stronger than I ever have before 

[Nahm]

On 2/26/2017 at 2:33 PM, LifeandDeath said:

@Nahm Thanks. I'll watch. 

Same question, do you feel ready for death if it was to arrive now? 

I feel the deep lesson in asking these questions for myself is that I understand more clearly what it is that I'm clinging too, or what latent 'expectations' I have for myself, or what I'm avoiding. 

When I think about death, I think about what that video is saying, that my assumption that I'm alive isn't entirely accurate. I love my life, I have kids, I'm not looking to die anytime soon. I see that I am infinity. So I'm enjoying this 'life' and not trying to take myself seriously. Get busy livin or get busy dyin.

[LifeandDeath]

I have found this to be a really good meditation... for those that are interested in exploring this further. 

Let me know your thoughts! 

[Mohammad]

@LifeandDeath  I am also struggling with myself on becoming comfortable with the fact that all this will end and death is the perfect end to all of this thing called "I". But on a practical level,I think that if you just remind yourself whenever you can in your daily life of the fact that death will come,it is real,and just try to fully accept it with all your being,it will make your life more joyful and your mind more clear so that you can explore more of the beauty of this journey that is life.

[pluto]

That which you are will never die nor is ever born. You can't prepare for what's already prepared.

If you die you wont even know until your already there, and within seconds you will forget you existed at all as you merge with oneness.

[LifeandDeath]

Do you know what's interesting - is I don't fear death anymore. But now I'm asking the question, how will I know when I 'really' don't fear death. I mean at the moment I feel like I could die at any time, but deep down inside I think I have another 1/2 of my life to live if I was to live out my whole biological life... so I'm not sure I'm really convinced. Then I ask myself the question, "if I had only 1 hour to live, would I be different, and what would I be like after the 56th minute..." and I think there would be some difference in me. So when the reality of death hits, I think it will transform me in some way. So then I return to where I started and I think how can I not fear something I haven't actually experienced yet, and I do not know how I will truely respond until the time comes (that's if I have a conscious death)... Anyway, overall I'm comfortable with the fact that I'm not scared of the idea of death and my own mortality. Thanks everyone for your contributions!