Living beings inevitably perish. However, we really do not understand this fact. We know that others will die, but we don’t acknowledge the inevitability of our own deaths.
By Sanjoo Thangjam
“Everything is impermanent.” That means that everything is constantly changing. For example, human race must die. This is the truth. However, there is one way in which people don’t die and that way of not dying is not to be born. But you are too late because you have already been born.
Living beings inevitably perish. However, we really do not understand this fact. We know that others will die, but we don’t acknowledge the inevitability of our own deaths.
Consider, for instance, the inevitability of aging. I am disappointed when I see my face in the mirror. I think of myself as young, but when I see my grey hair and my wrinkles, I look older than I think of being.
In my thoughts, I am always young. This thought is called illusion. On the other hand, looking at myself in the mirror is a fact. This fact is called reality
According to me, the gap between ILLUSION and REALITY is in actuality the suffering caused by aging. However, appreciating the reality, that is, “to see it as it is,” and realizing that I have been getting older ever since I was born, I am able to accept aging. In other words, when I am aware of the reality that it is natural to grow old, the illusion that causes suffering is swept away. Then I am able to accept the reality of growing old.
Sickness is the same thing. In our minds, we think that health is natural. Therefore, when we become sick, we ask, “Why me?” Then we suffer. However, when we are in the hospital and realize that, because we are living beings, we experience both health and sickness in the course of our lives, then we are to accept sickness as a natural aspect of living thereby accepting our condition and cooperate with the physicians who are treating us.
Death is the same way. We think we don’t want to die; therefore, we suffer. It is natural for all living beings to die. When a loved one dies, we see the fact that all living beings are subject to death.
When we see the facts of birth, old age, sickness and death clearly, the illusion that causes suffering is cleared away. Then we can naturally accept birth, old age, sickness and death as they are.
On one occasion, a friend of a Buddhist monk wrote a book entitled The Way to Die Well. One day, in a meeting with him, the monk asked, “Can you die well?” The friend couldn’t provide a good answer. Even if we die well, you will be so preoccupied about whether are dying a good or a bad death that you will not be able to die well.
Nobody wants to be in a position of lying in bed forever. Nobody wants to get Alzheimer’s disease. Those are examples of how life never seems to go along with our wishes.
We do not have to die well. If you feel pain, you can say, “Ouch!” If you are suffering, you can say, “I hurt.” If death comes, it is all alright that you die just as you are. If you think of dying in this way, you can be at peace as a result. This is the world of “naturalness”.
Therefore, as soon as you detach yourself from the scale in your mind against which you judge what is good and bad, you will be able to live peacefully.
(The writer is a columnist based in Imphal.)