Death and Dying - Dalai Lama

When we sleep, when we wake, when we come closer to death,

in a sense, we can see that our existence is characterised by a continuing cycle of

the consciousness moving through an extremely subtle level to a comparatively less

subtle level to a gross level, and then dipping down through a reversal process of subtlety

and so on.

Even in our day-to day life our consciousness goes through these transitions of different

level of subtlety. Death marks a big point when consciousness has finally dissolved into

the most subtle level of its existence.

So, it may be said that death is nothing but a state of consciousness.

Generally speaking, when we define death, we have to understand it in terms of the separation

of the link between the present body and the consciousness.

At one level we can prepare for death so that we don’t experience a sense of fear.

A second level of preparation, which is a bit more profound, is actually to think about our

future if you believe in rebirth ?

Finally, there can be a highly advanced preparation for death, in which one prepares oneself

through a spiritual practice in such a way that one can transform the clear light moment of

death into an aspect of the spiritual path.

Death is part of life, part of existence. Once we cultivate that kind of familiarity with the idea, then

when death actually happens, there will be less a sense of shock, less a sense of fear.

While one is alive, if one has made every effort to live one’s life as meaningful and purposeful as possible then at the point of death at least there will be no regret , no remorse.

At the point of death, it is important to recall many of the virtuous activities that you engaged in

to transform the consciousness at the point of death into a virtuous state, a positive state.

We can cling to security , or we can let ourselves feel exposed, as if we had just been born, as if

we had just popped out into the brightness of life and were completely naked.

Right there, in the uncertainty of everyday chaos is our own wisdom mind.

In the state of nowness.

Right there in that inadequate, restless feeling is our wisdom mind.

We can simply experiment. There’s absolutely nothing to lose. We could experiment with not getting tossed around by right and wrong and with learning to relax with groundlessness.