Ram Dass's thoughts on dying
Not to be a downer but I have found Ram Dass's thoughts on dying, in his book "Paths to God" to be incredibly powerful.
Especially when he writes about Gandhi.
Here it is:
"If you've been filling your mind with the names of God all throughout your life, you've got a better chance of their being there at the moment when you're dying. Mahatma Gandhi was walking out into his garden, just another ordinary day, when he was shot three times by an assassin. He didn't say, "Aaargh!" or "I've been shot!" or "Long live India!" He just said, "Ram," and he died. He was so ready that even at the moment of the totally unexpected, he went right toward God. Just, Yeah- here I come. Wheeeee! Look ma, no hands. I'm free!
What we need most at the moment of death is incredible clarity of consciousness. Since dying is one of the most profound events of our lives, don't we owe it the respect of preparing for it, so that when it comes we can deal with it consciously?"
(Ram Dass, Paths to God)
I find this to be so inspiring. Sometimes I think of dedicating my life to working with the dying. Helping people prepare for death. I've thought about it often. Who knows?
And I've never articulated this this before till reading this book, but I realize that meditation actually is a way to prepare us for death. Think about it; We are sitting still, with our eyes closed, the outside world disappears. When we meditate we learn to attune to the silence, the stillness, the eternal awareness that permeates everything and never dies. Ram Dass quotes in his book a study from the University of California in Berkeley which demonstrated that meditators were "significantly less anxious about dying than anybody else in the whole population. (p. 206) Interesting, huh?
That said, I won't bring this up in class, it's too much!
Can you imagine?
"Good Morning everyone! What a beautiful day. So today's theme is death and dying! Close your eyes..."
Crickets sounds outside and no one will ever come back to my class.
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