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Contemplating Death
by Michael A. Singer |
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It is truly a great cosmic paradox that one of the best
teachers in all of life turns out to be death. No person
or situation could ever teach you as much as death has
to teach you. While someone could tell you that you are
not your body, death shows you. While someone could
remind you of the insignificance of the things that you
cling to, death takes them all away in a second. While
people can teach you that men and women of all races are
equal and that there is no difference between the rich
and the poor, death instantly makes us all the same.
The question is, are you going to wait until that last
moment to let death be your teacher? The mere
possibility of death has the power to teach us at any
moment. A wise person realizes that at any moment they
may breathe out, and the breath may not come back in. It
could happen any time, in any place, and your last
breath is gone. You have to learn from this. A wise
being completely and totally embraces the reality, the
inevitability, and the unpredictability of death.
Any time you're having trouble with something, think of
death. Let's say you're the jealous type, and you can't
stand anyone being close to your mate. Think about what
will happen when you're no longer here. Is it really all
that romantic that your loved one should live alone with
no one to care for them? If you can get past your
personal issues, you'll find that you want the person
you love to be happy and to have a full and beautiful
life. Since that is what you want for them, why are you
bothering them now just for talking to someone?
It shouldn't take death to challenge you to live at your
highest level. Why wait until everything is taken from
you before you learn to dig down deep inside yourself to
reach your highest potential? A wise person affirms, "If
with one breath all of this can change, then I want to
live at the highest level while I'm alive. I'm going to
stop bothering the people I love. I'm going to live life
from the deepest part of my being."
This is the consciousness necessary for deep and
meaningful relationships. Look how callous we get with
our loved ones. We take it for granted that they're
there and that they'll continue to be there for us. What
if they died? What if you died? What if you knew that
this evening would be the last time you'd get to see
them? Imagine that an angel comes down and tells you,
"Straighten up your affairs. You will not awake from
your sleep tonight. You're coming to me." Then you'd
know that every person you see that day, you'd be seeing
for the last time. How would you feel? How would you
interact with them? Would you even bother with the
little grudges and complaints you've been carrying
around? How much love could you give the ones you love,
knowing it would be the last time you'd get to be with
them? Think about what it would be like if you lived
like that every moment with everyone. Your life would be
really different. You should contemplate this. Death is
not a morbid thought. Death is the greatest teacher in
all of life.
Take a moment to look at the things you think you need.
Look at how much time and energy you put into various
activities. Imagine if you knew you were going to die
within a week or a month. How would that change things?
How would your priorities change? How would your
thoughts change? Think honestly about what you would do
with your last week. What a wonderful thought to
contemplate. Then ponder this question: If that's really
what you would do with your last week, what are you
doing with the rest of your time? Wasting it? Throwing
it away? Treating it like it's not something precious?
What are you doing with life? That is what death asks
you.
Let's say you're living life without the thought of
death, and the Angel of Death comes to you and says,
"Come, it's time to go." You say, "But no. You're
supposed to give me a warning so I can decide what I
want to do with my last week. I'm supposed to get one
more week." Do you know what Death will say to you?
He'll say, "My God! I gave you fifty-two weeks this past
year alone. And look at all the other weeks I've given
you. Why would you need one more? What did you do with
all those?" If asked that, what are you going to say?
How will you answer? "I wasn't paying attention . . . I
didn't think it mattered." That's a pretty amazing thing
to say about your life.
Death is a great teacher. But who lives with that level
of awareness? It doesn't matter what age you are; at any
time you could take a breath and there may never be
another. It happens all the time -- to babies, to
teenagers, to people in mid-life -- not just to the
aged. One breath and they're gone. No one knows when
their time will be. That's not how it works.
So why not be bold enough to regularly reflect on how
you would live that last week? If you were to ask this
question of people who are truly awakened, they wouldn't
have any problem answering you. Not a thing would change
inside of them. Not a thought would cross their minds.
If death were to come in an hour, if death were to come
in a week, or if death were to come in a year, they
would live exactly the same way as they're living now.
There is not a single thing they carry inside of their
hearts that they would rather be doing. In other words,
they are living their lives fully and are not making
compromises or playing games with themselves.
You have to be willing to look at what it would be like
if death was staring you in the face. Then you have to
come to peace within yourself so that it doesn't make
any difference whether it is or not. There is a story of
a great yogi who said that every moment of his life he
felt as though a sword were suspended above his head by
a spider web. He lived his life with the awareness that
he was that close to death. You are that close to death.
Every time you get in the car, every time you walk
across the street, and every time you eat something, it
could be the last thing you do. Do you realize that what
you're doing at any moment is something that someone was
doing when they died? "He died eating dinner . . . He
died in a car accident, two miles from his home . . .
She died in a plane wreck on a trip to New York . . . He
went to bed and never woke up . . ." At some point, this
is how it happened to somebody. No matter what you're
doing, you can be sure somebody died that way.
You must not be afraid to discuss death. Don't get
upright about it. Instead, let this knowledge help you
to live every moment of your life fully, because every
moment matters. That's what happens when somebody knows
they only have a week left. You can be certain that they
would tell you that the most important week they ever
had was that last week. Everything is a million times
more meaningful in that final week. What if you were to
live every week that way?
© Copyright Michael A. Singer. All Rights Reserved.
By
Michael A. Singer:
Please click on the book cover to purchase
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Living)
Michael A.
Singer received a master's degree in the
economics from the University of Florida in 1971. During
his doctoral work, he had a deep inner awakening and
went into seclusion to focus on yoga and meditation. In
1975, he founded Temple of the Universe, a now
long-established yoga and meditation center where people
of any religion or set of beliefs can come together to
experience inner peace. Through the years, Singer has
made major contributions in the areas of business, the
arts, education, healthcare, and environmental
protection. He has previously authored two books in the
integration of Eastern and Western philosophy:
The Search for Truth
and Three
Essays on Universal Law: Karma, Will and Love.
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