Death is a domain of the old: the elderly are
often preoccupied with thoughts of death and dying. Death is also a
leveler-of-man: death will come no matter what—whether not thinking
about death or denying the coming of death.
Death
anxiety is fear of death and dying, which is not uncommon among the
elderly. But death anxiety is unhealthy because it takes away the joy of living
in the present moment, and thus depriving successful aging.
Living
by faith, you understand the positive meanings of life and death: the
motivation to go on living, and the acceptance of the inevitability of human
mortality to live well and to die well. Yes, all is well that ends well.
Living by faith, you prepare yourself mentally and
spiritually for death to give you courage to get into the unknown and the
beyond after death without any fear—just as the Apostle Paul said about
his relationship with God: “For to me to live is Christ, to die is gain.” (Philippians
1:21)
An Illustration of the Ancient
Chinese Sages
Indeed,
many people may have their own different perspectives of death when confronted
by death and dying.
Chuang
Tsu, an ancient philosopher, once said: “How do I know that in clinging
to this life that I’m not merely clinging to a dream and delaying my entry into
the real world? The great earth burdens me with a body that causes me to toil
in life, eases me into old age, and rests me in death. That which makes my life
good, makes my death even better.”
According to Lao Tzu, the author of the ancient classic Tao
Te Ching:
“Life begets death; one is inseparable from the other.
One third of people focus on life, ignoring death.
One third of people focus on death, ignoring life.
One third of people think of neither, just drifting along.
They all suffer in the end.
Trusting the Creator, we have no illusion about life and death.
Holding nothing back from life, we are ready for death,
just as a man
ready for sleep after a good day’s work.”
(Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, chapter 50)
Spontaneity is the essence of the natural cycle. What goes up must
eventually come down; life only begets death; day is always followed by night—they’re just like the
cycle of the four seasons.
Intuition of spontaneity is the ultimate
understanding of the impermanence of all things: nothing lasts no matter
how one may strive to keep them permanent, and everything remains only with
that present moment, and nothing lasts forever. This self-awakening may give
better understanding of everything in everyday life.
Living by faith, you know that God
gives you eternal life after your death. You never worry about death and
dying—they’re just the rite of passage to eternality.
Impermanence
Death ends life and
everything in life, and that’s the impermanence of anything and
everything in life.
Impermanence is an
inescapable fact of all human existence, clearly evidenced in the process of
growing up, falling sick, growing old, and dying in all humans, as well as in
the process of decaying of all things perishable and the passing away of
anything liable to pass. There’re no exceptions, and that’s also the
indisputable truth of impermanence and emptiness of anything and everything.
According to Buddha, life is like a river. The water
flowing in a river is like a progressive and a successive series of different
but unified movements of water, all joining together to create the
impression of only one continuous flow of water. Likewise, human
existence is also moment-to-moment, with each moment leading to the next. It’s
an illusion that the person in this moment is the same person in the
next moment; just as the river of yesterday is not the same as the river
of today. To think otherwise is only a human illusion.
Even from a scientific point of view, Buddha’s perspective
is true. Cells division takes place continuously in each living being:
old cells in the human bodies die and are continuously replaced by new ones.
Technically speaking, all individuals are constantly subject to change,
and the change is a continuous movement, just like the flowing water in a
river.
Given that nothing is permanent, letting go is
everything in living, especially in the final phase of life.
Letting go
Living in simplicity is letting go of all attachments to the material
things in this secular world that demand over-doing, wearing a designer’s
dress, driving an expensive car, living in a rich neighborhood, and many others
to gratify one’s wants and desires in the flesh.
Letting go is living a stress-free life with detachments from, instead
of attachments to, all things that’re impermanent.
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