Meditation on Death

Even the Buddha died. His death was a teaching, to shock the naive,the indolent, and the complacent, to wake us up to the truth that everything is impermanent and that death is an inescapable fact of life. As he was approaching his death, Buddha said;

Of all footprints,
That of the elephant is supreme,
Of all mindfulness meditations,
That on death is supreme.

The Buddha taught many lessons, but death and meditating on death was his most common topic and theme.

I believe we all need to make peace with the fact that we are going to die. I truly feel that those who do not make peace with this fact are often suffering with anxiety or living a life without really taking risks and enjoying each moment. I know that meditating on one's death isn't something we in our Western culture are used to. (Even many avid readers of this blog bypassed this entry!) We tend to deny the reality of our death and believe on some level that we are eternal. People who talk of their death and of other's death are considered weird or morbid. I think that when we come to terms with our own demise we can be alive in each moment while we are living.