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Expert Yogi
Posts: 2479
  
Location: A Blue State | When I was young, I always understood dying as something fairly
abrupt. Have an accident, die. Or get old, have a heart attack, die.
Or, worst case, get cancer, die in six months.
[Yes, I'm sorry, this is a morbid post.]
But as I've gotten older, I've come to understand that death also
comes in increments. A loss of a bit of this or that which adds up
over time. Progressive losses of mobility and control, increasing
amounts of medical intervention. Death can take not just years but
decades.
All the preparation we get for adulthood, throughout our schooling
and training, is not balanced by preparation for aging.
I guess what I'm reaching out for here is some understanding of
living and THEN dying. Our acceptance of our own death must surely
be the fundamentaly struggle in our lives, whether we admit it or
ignore it.
YS 2:9 -- Fear of death affects both the ignorant and the wise.
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Location: Upstate NY | Om Namah Sivaya
BG,
Funny thing is that noone ever really contemplates death until its at their door.
Om Shanti,
Ravi |
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| Bay Guy, thanks for having the courage for initiating this post. Maybe it's morbid and that's why we're not prepared for death since no one wants to talk about it.
I've also noticed death comes in increments, sort of like 'death by 1,000 cuts'. That's a very important concept.
I am always surprized at how most mainstream Westerners think they are indestructible as they drink their cans of diet coke for 20 years. And that's just diet coke! There's way worse things to do for 20 to 30 years. Then they turn 40 years old, 50 if they're lucky, an they have all these serious health problems. Of course these health problems can be managed with convention W. Medicine so these people can live another 20 to 30 years while their bodies break down.
Then there's things like depression and depressing situations that rob us of our life year by year. This is a big topic and I have to take a shower right now - gotta go |
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 5098
Location: Somewhere in the Mountains of Western NC | BG,
When one is truly an yoga aspirant, you know that at the core of your existence you are not this individual personality, your are the absolute self - Brahman, which underlies all names and forms. In the depths of your being, you encompass all heavens and earth, and you far surpass them. Having that kind of understanding certainly makes it easier to prepare for death, but it takes work to live in the spirit of yoga. Not being dominated by the illusions of self enjoyments, we can terminate the karmic process. When we are led by desires and cravings, we continue to incarnate from one embodiment to another, encountering numerous parents and relatives, passing through numerous conditions of pleasure and pain. That is why I consider myself so very fortunate to have a yoga practice...it is so important to realize the nature of our existence and not become attached to worldly objects. It is also important to be aware of the illusions we are bombarded with daily as well, that have a way of manipulating our minds back into suffering. |
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 2479
Location: A Blue State | Cyndi --
Yes, it's really about attachment to living. I think, and the Sutra says it, that
everybody finds it hard to let go.
I have been discovering the way that we start to die earlier, much earlier, than what
would be considered The End. Aging is a long term process, and after a certain point
the problems simply accumulate rather than going away. So what I am wondering is
how we all prepare for inevitable loss --- all of our schooling is about gain.
I've heard several yoga teachers say something to the effect that one should never
become too attached to any yoga pose, because one day you will no longer be able
to do it. I think, 'though, that we should also celebrate the doing of it while we are
able, and that we should celebrate when others do these things (even if we can't) --
that's mudita in YS 1:33. Living is a continuum, and the young or the old are
not better or worse, they are just at different points on the same curve.
.... bg |
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 5098
Location: Somewhere in the Mountains of Western NC | Bay Guy - 2006-02-20 9:27 PM
I have been discovering the way that we start to die earlier, much earlier, than what
would be considered The End. Aging is a long term process, and after a certain point
the problems simply accumulate rather than going away. So what I am wondering is
how we all prepare for inevitable loss --- all of our schooling is about gain.
Well, some guru's would tell you to un-do most of your schooling and forget about the logic. At least that is the way I've been taught. It works pretty well too. In fact, very well. When you un-do the schooling and drop the logic, it expands and opens you up to a new world of intuitiveness and thereafter, the world is so much different after that.
Edited by Cyndi 2006-02-20 9:54 PM
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 2479
Location: A Blue State | I think that some things with which we deal cannot be handled logically.
Love is a great example. So is not liking to eat broccoli. So is a desire to
be extremely rich.
But I also think that logic is incredibly powerful and useful, so I try to discard
it only when I'm pretty sure that it is irrelevant.
For example, logic can tell me nothing about why I am living, or why I will die.
It can tell me details, of course, like how my parents made a baby or how
a disease can kill, but that says nothing about any reason for my being or
for the time of my death. So if I want a reason of that sort, I have to give up
on logic. I have to remember not to make any reason that I find by other means
into an axiom for subsequent logic, so as to avoid inventing a dogma.
I also think that it is logical to recognize that one will decline and die, and logical
therefore to be prepared for these events or processes. How do we prepare?
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 5098
Location: Somewhere in the Mountains of Western NC | Oops, I forgot to tell you that once you drop the logic, you only do it for a short time. You gain the logic back with a different kind of intensity...one that is useful and necessary for your survival and of course, to go along with your newfound intelligence,  Does that make sense??
Edited by Cyndi 2006-02-20 10:24 PM
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| I'd like to add something to this discussion, but I really can't think of anything. |
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 5098
Location: Somewhere in the Mountains of Western NC | GreenJello - 2006-02-20 11:30 PM
I'd like to add something to this discussion, but I really can't think of anything.
What's the matter GJ, Did we confuse your logical mind back there??? It's okay, it happens to the best of us,  |
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Yoga Sutra 2:9
