How to stop thinking of death you ask? Well let’s take it a step back, how do you even stop thinking of anything, how do you stop thinking of anything at all? Only when one is able to stop thinking Completely can one stop thinking of death.
Mystery of Death.
An average human being thinks of death at least once a day. That is because death is a mystery to every average man. Death is truer than life. It is one guarantee we all have. It is an absolute certainty. Hence, because of this doubtless certainty, humans can help but wonder what death entails.
Is it the fire and fury they have been indoctrinated to believe by different religious bigots? Or is it just Nothingness. An empty pool of darkness and nothingness? Is it an unending Armageddon or an empty bottomless abyss? Is there going to be unending suffering or Is there going to be just peace?
Are we going to have this conscious awareness as we do in this world or are we just going to disappear and become nothing when we die? The questions seem endless. Death indeed brings many questions to us. And yes many teachers, philosophers and rabbis try to give us answers.
But despite their knowledge, we hardly find those answer fully satisfying. We still harbor doubt beneath our minds. That is why we believe strongly! Because only a STRONG force of belief will be able to suppress the strong doubt in us. As much as we respect these people, we know that the answers they give us are not their individual experiences.
Unless we have someone who we agree has really died, give us the account of what death truly is, we cannot be truly sure of the reality of death. In fact, even if we meet someone who claims to have died before, unless we die ourselves, we will still not be satisfied solely based on someone’s experience. Any knowledge which comes not out of one’s individual experience, but rather a say so, will definitely not vibe completely with us.
A friend of mine broke his leg in a very deadly accident. The fracture was so bad he had to undergo an ORIF Surgery, Open Reduction and Internal Fixation. In this procedure, adjustable iron rods were inserted into his leg to help the bones heal and grow faster. The Iron is attached to the bone with pins to provide stability during the healing.
This causes him severe pain all over the swollen leg which worsens whenever he moves. His pain killers mean nothing when the aching starts especially a night. You could hear him groaning of pain in the middle of the night. It was so difficult for him.
However, he started developing friendship with one particular person in the neighborhood. It is strange, for years they have not been close to each other, but now, suddenly he prefers the company of that person. We all couldn’t help it but wonder why this sudden friendship.
After a long while, when our friend healed, we asked him about his sudden friendship with that person. We were curios. He said to us: “That person has also gone through the same surgery before. Unlike you guys who only imagine the pain I go through, he has felt it. And hence he understands it. He knows how to console me best, and just knowing he went through it, and survived it gives me some hope and relief.”
And this truly makes sense. Hence, unless you meet a person who truly died, you cannot have a true glimpse of what death is about. And unless you die yourself, you cannot truly know what death is. That is the Mystery of death.
Fear of death.
Fear of death is a good reason why the thought of death always keeps coming back to you. But your fear of death is valid. Humans fear the unknown. It is natural, every human fears the darkness, not because of the darkness itself but because of what might be hidden inside it.
Sun Tzu of the Art of War, has utilized this knowledge to win superior armies. That is why he emphasizes on knowing oneself and knowing the enemy. If you know yourself and know the enemy, you will win a battle all the time with 100 percent certainty.
Sun Tzu inspires the fear of the unknown in his enemies’ minds. If the enemy is unsure of your strength (as in size of army) and is unsure when you will attack in your blitz style. And is unsure which paths you will take. Then your enemy’s size is irrelevant. The fear of the unknown is so strong in the minds of men that countries, armies, corporations and organizations teach and learn about how to exploit it for their gains.
Hence the fear of death cannot be conquered unless one knows what death is. The experience of others won’t help you. The only thing that will help you is your individual experience. And once you know what death is, your mind will be done with it. And you will be free.
Die first in order to stop thinking of death.
Now, that you know that you have to die to break from the fear of death and the thought of death. What can you do about it?
The first step is to find out what death is not. This way you will set your mind at ease from what you think death is. Decide that unless someone has really died, that you will not accept his version of what death is. This requires courage!
If you want to be a doctor, would you rather go to a lawyer for advice? I guess not. So also, the best business advice will come from a businessman not a government employee. If you agree with this, then why do you accept a definition of death from someone with absolutely no experience of it at all. Why do you accept a definition of death based on hearsay?
To have a direction you need someone who has travelled the road. To know the hassle, you need to travel the road yourself. Then you have a complete Knowledge. And with this knowledge you can now be free of the haunting thoughts of death.
So, as unrealistic as it sounds, I’m going to try showing you how to die. I will try to guide you on how to die consciously in such a way you would be aware of death. Once you are able to die consciously, you would have experienced death yourself and the haunting thoughts of death would flee by themselves.
How to stop thinking of death? By dying, how to die? By Meditation. Of course, I do not mean this bogus pocus kind of meditation, but real empty, meditation. A meditation without expectations or suppression, a meditation that leads to silence not just of the mouth and the ears but of the mind and the soul.
When the Ears are empty and the Mind is Empty, you would have reached the state of no mind. In this state the mind disappears. And if there is no mind, tell me which mind will think of death? And when there is no mind, that is practically what death is.
When one dies, what dies actually? It is the mind which dies! It is the mind which collapse except for a meditator, his awareness remains. And once you become a meditator, even when the body is unable to sustain life, the deathless awareness persists. It is safe to say a meditator never dies.
That is because his awareness is sharpened, he sees everything including the façade of death.
Before I proceed to Meditation, let’s see to the Fallacy of Thinking.
The Fallacy of Thinking
Thinking cannot be stopped. Not through conscious effort at least. You cannot force your way to stop thinking. Even though there are some yoga techniques that try to temporarily silence the mind, and hence stop the thoughts. Such as relentless repetition of mantras which dulls the mind and for a moment bring about a dull silence, or even more dangerous techniques such as pinning the head, in a manner that ensures too much blood flow to the head.
Normally, the brain doesn’t need plenty blood circulating in it. Hence we use pillows to feel more comfortable by tilting the head a little above while sleeping. But when a yogi decides to rapidly accelerate the flow of blood to the head, the mind starts losing itself, and a certain dullness and silence follows.
But the problem with these techniques is that the mind is suppressed. And like a wall of spring, anything which is suppressed and put under undue pressure will expel, expand and explode. These yogi methods are like cocaine or marijuana, they give you temporal relief and once the mind is back, the suppressed mind will fight back harder than ever before.
The thoughts will come back with full force. And there is almost nothing you can do about it. Hence unless you learn how to meditate the right way which is without suppression or expectation, you will not be able to know how to stop thinking of death.
This article will be continued……….
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