On Life and Death
Take a breath; it might be your last
from 
JoeUser Forums
JoeUser Forums
With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,
Lately, I've been thinking about dying. Not that I plan to do so anytime in the near (or far) future, but as we age, death seems to be all around us. The other day, for example, I was eating a bagel, sipping some coffee, and listening to a ontological discussion about Judaism at our local synagogue, when My Little Honey appears. She tells me her friend John just died while reading a piece of his at her Desert Writer's Group. Apparently, he died mid-sentence.
What does this mean? If you are young and busy, not much. If you are in your "golden years" and not so busy, quite a lot. Youth, bless it, has a wonderful capacity to make us feel as though we will live forever. Age knows better. So, as we age we become wiser? Not really. Just more in touch with certain realities.
So, of late I have been thinking about death. I wrote yesterday in some blog response somewhere, that I didn't fear death. I don't. While I don't welcome it: I have much and many to live for, dying is nothing special. Living, on the other hand, is very special. It seems made more special by every ache and pain I experience; by my memory's state, my physical ability's state, and the state of my social and familial network.
In Zen, there is death and there is life. There is also living beyond the concepts of life and death. Our practice teaches us to exist squarely where we are. In that existence, we live deeply with each breath.
I was teaching a bit from the beginning chapters of the Diamond Sutra yesterday. The Buddha taught that beings who believe a self exists independent of others and that there is a lifespan are not awake. What this means is that as we open our eyes to the deep and complete interdependence of all things and know that the idea of a self is just that, an idea, subject to change in every moment, with no enduring center-point, we are free, Yet this freedom carries with it an awesome responsibility.
Discovering and manifesting that responsibility is our life's work.
Be well.
Good Morning Everyone,
Lately, I've been thinking about dying. Not that I plan to do so anytime in the near (or far) future, but as we age, death seems to be all around us. The other day, for example, I was eating a bagel, sipping some coffee, and listening to a ontological discussion about Judaism at our local synagogue, when My Little Honey appears. She tells me her friend John just died while reading a piece of his at her Desert Writer's Group. Apparently, he died mid-sentence.
What does this mean? If you are young and busy, not much. If you are in your "golden years" and not so busy, quite a lot. Youth, bless it, has a wonderful capacity to make us feel as though we will live forever. Age knows better. So, as we age we become wiser? Not really. Just more in touch with certain realities.
So, of late I have been thinking about death. I wrote yesterday in some blog response somewhere, that I didn't fear death. I don't. While I don't welcome it: I have much and many to live for, dying is nothing special. Living, on the other hand, is very special. It seems made more special by every ache and pain I experience; by my memory's state, my physical ability's state, and the state of my social and familial network.
In Zen, there is death and there is life. There is also living beyond the concepts of life and death. Our practice teaches us to exist squarely where we are. In that existence, we live deeply with each breath.
I was teaching a bit from the beginning chapters of the Diamond Sutra yesterday. The Buddha taught that beings who believe a self exists independent of others and that there is a lifespan are not awake. What this means is that as we open our eyes to the deep and complete interdependence of all things and know that the idea of a self is just that, an idea, subject to change in every moment, with no enduring center-point, we are free, Yet this freedom carries with it an awesome responsibility.
Discovering and manifesting that responsibility is our life's work.
Be well.