death - whats that?

today was one of those days where i wanted to indulge myself in a good bout of sensible reading........as soon as i went near my own small library at home the heading "TAO" caught my eyes. i guess it was obvious bcoz the book was quite new n the words were also beautifully embeded on a rich gold background. i was still quizzical for a couple of minutes whether it was cardinal to start with such a heavy book after a tiring day in the office added with the heavy gyming! but i guess sometimes it is always better to give in to the instincts. i already had some idea about the concept tao but still i was baffled to find that the chinese culture also had such indepth meaning in them. forgive me for blogging another heavy subject n such a long one at that but still........if u r not in the mood u could always go back!

ok coming back to tao! what is tao? tao is basically "oneness"!i mean it is just unfair to describe such a huge subject in just one simple word but that one word is the raw essence of tao. u r one with everything inside n outside u. n everything around u also becomes 1. all of a sudden its just one thing that matters the most n thats only life. while reading the book the first thought that came to my mind was "if everything is one then what about life n death? r'nt they as different as night n day?" well.........i was stunned to realise the ultimate reality....

what is death? death is destiny. it has to be bcoz death is the origin - we come from death n we go to death. life is just a moment between 2 nothingnesses, just a flight of a bird between 2 states of non being. if death is destiny, as it is, then the whole of life becomes a preparation for it- a training, a discipline in how to die rightly n how to die totally n utterly. the whole of life consists in learning how to die. but somehow a wrong conception about death has entered the humanity, the conception that death is the enemy. this is the basis of all wrong conceptions, n this is against the eternal law, the tao.

man has taken death as the enemy of life-as if death is there to destroy life, as if death is against life. if this is the conception then of course we have to fight death, n life becomes an effort to survive against death. then we r fighting against our own origin n we r fighting against our destiny. then we r fighting something that is going to happen. the whole fight is absurd bcoz death cannot be avoided. if it were something outside us, it could be avoided, but it is inside. we carry it from the very moment we r born. we start dying really when we start breathing, at the same moment. it is not right to say that death comes in the end, it has always been with us from the very beginning. it is a part of us........it is our innermost centre. it grows with us n one day it comes to a culmination........one day it comes to flowering. the day of death is not the day of death's coming, it is the flowering. death was growing within us all this time, now it has reached the peak; n once death reaches a peak we disappear back into the origin.

but ppl around have a taken a wrong attitude n that wrong attitude creates struggle, fight, violence. a man who thinks that death is against life can never be non-violent. it is impossible.....a man who thinks death is against life can never be at ease, at home. that is impossible. how can u be at ease if the enemy is waiting for u any moment? it will jump on u n destroy u. how can u be non-tense when death is waiting around the corner n the shadow of death is always falling on u? it can happen any moment. how can we rest when death is there? how can we relax? the enemy wont allow us to relax.

hence the tension, the anxiety, the anguish of humanity. the more we fight with death, the more anxiety-ridden we'll become, we r bound to become. that's a natural consequence. if we fight with death we know that we r going to be defeated. how can we be happy with a life that is going to end in defeat? deep down we r certain about only one thing n that is death. in life everything is uncertain, only death is certain. there is only one cetainity n with that we have an enemity. how could be fight with certainity n still hope for uncertainities? how can we be relaxed, calm, collected? impossible........

if death is the enemy, then basically the whole of life becomes our enemy. then every moment, everywhere, the shadow falls; then in everywhere death echoes. the whole life becomes inimical, n we start fighting. once we understand that death is not the opposite of life but part of it, an intrinsic part of it, which can never be seperated from it-once we accept death as a friend, suddenly a transformation happens. n no kidding or the 'holier-than-thou' attitude here but truely a calm comes in. now there is no fight, no war, we r not fighting against anybody.....now we can be relaxed n be at home. only when death becomes a friend, life also becomes our friend. this may look paradoxical but it only appears to be that way. if death is the enemy then deep down life is also the enemy coz life leads to death.

every type of life leads to death- the poor man's life, the rich man's life, a life of success n a life of failure, the life of a wise man n the life of an ignorant one, the life of a sinner n a saint. so how can we be in love with life if we r against death? then our love is nothing but a positiveness........just a clinging. against death we cling to life understanding very well that this very life itself brings death nearer every day.

so be happy n enjoy life coz its high time we realised some basic things of life n stop fighting it :)