…死亡與永恆
每個人的歷程都是如此短暫，生命轉瞬即逝。有什麼是不受限於生與死的嗎？有什麼是永恆的嗎？
想想看：如果只有一種顏色，比如藍色，整個世界和其中的萬物如果都是藍色，那麼就不存在藍色了。必須有什麼不是藍色，這樣藍色才能被認出來；否則，藍色就無法“凸顯”，無法存在。
同樣的道理，是否也需要存在某種並不短暫、並不易逝的東西，好讓萬物的變化無常能夠被認出呢？換句話說：如果萬事萬物，包括你在內，都不是持久不變的，你還能認出這一點嗎？你能覺知並目睹萬物包括你自己轉瞬即逝的本性，這個事實不正意味著你內在有某個東西是永不衰落的嗎？
當你二十歲的時候，你覺知到你的身體強壯而充滿活力；六十年之後，你覺知到你的身體羸弱而衰老。自二十歲以來，你的想法或許也改變了很多，但那個知道你的身體是年輕或衰老，知道你的想法已經改變的那一份覺知一直都沒有變過。那個覺知是你內在的永恆 – 是意識本身。它就是無形的合一生命。你會失去它嗎？不會，因為你就是它。
∞
有些人在臨終前變得非常安詳，幾乎是發光的，彷彿有什麼東西在這消逝的軀體裡閃耀著光芒。
可以這麼說，有時侯，病得很嚴重或歲數很大的老人會在他們生命的最後幾周、幾個月，甚至幾年裡，變得幾乎透明。當他們看著你時，你也許會看見他們眼中放射出光芒。再也沒有心理上的痛苦了。他們已經臣服，所以這個人，這個頭腦製造的小我，已經消融了。他們已經“在死亡之前死了”，他們已經發現了內心深處的安詳，了悟了他們內在的永恆不朽。
∞
在每一個意外和災難裡，都蘊含著一場我們通常不知道的潛在的救贖。
突如其來的死亡所帶來的巨大震撼可以迫使你的意識徹底脫離對形式的認同。在身體死去的最後時刻，以及在死亡的那一刻，你經驗到自己就是脫離形體的意識。突然，再也沒有恐懼，只有寧靜，你了知到“一切安好”，而死亡只是一種外在形式的消融罷了。於是，你意識到，死亡終究是虛幻的 – 正如你曾認同為自己的這個軀體一樣虛幻。
∞
死亡，並不是現代文化想要讓你相信的那樣，是異常的事，或者是所有事件中最可怕的事，它其實是這個世界上最自然的事，死亡與它對應的出生一樣自然，死與生密不可分。當你坐在一個即將死去的人身邊時，記住這一點。
在見證和陪伴一個人的死亡時,保持臨在，是一項莫大的榮耀，也是一個神聖的行為。
當你坐在一個瀕死的人身邊，不要否定這個經驗的任何一個面向。不要否定正在發生的事，也不要否定你的感受。發現自己什麼也做不了也許會令你感到無助、悲傷，或是憤怒。接納你的感受。接著再深入一步：接納此時你什麼也做不了，徹底地接納這一點。你無法掌控這一切。對這個經驗的每一個面向都深深地臣服，臣服於你的感受，臣服於這個瀕死的人可能體驗到的痛苦或不適。你的意識的臣服狀態和那伴隨而來的寧靜將給這瀕死的人帶來巨大的幫助，並使這轉化過程更加容易。如果感到想說話，這話語將會來自於你內在的寧靜。但是語言是次要的。
伴隨著這寧靜而來的，是深深的祝福：安詳。
∞
…Death and the Eternal
How short-lived every human experience is, how fleeting our lives. Is there anything that is not subject to birth and death, anything that is eternal?
Consider this: if there were only one color, let us say blue, and the entire world and everything in it were blue, then there would be no blue. There needs to be something that is not blue so that blue can be recognized; otherwise, it would not “stand out,” would not exist.
In the same way, does it not require something that is not fleeting and impermanent for the fleetingness of all things to be recognized? In other words: if everything, including yourself, were impermanent, would you even know it? Does the fact that you are aware of and can witness the short-lived nature of all forms, including your own, not mean that there is something in you that is not subject to decay?
When you are twenty, you are aware of your body as strong and vigorous; sixty years later, you are aware of your body as weakened and old. Your thinking too may have changed from when you were twenty, but the awareness that knows that your body is young or old or that your thinking has changed has undergone no change. That awareness is the eternal in you–consciousness itself. It is the formlessOne Life. Can you lose It? No, because you are It.
∞
Some people become deeply peaceful and almost luminous just before they die, as if something is shining through the dissolving form.
Sometimes it happens that very ill or old people become almost transparent, so to speak, in the last few weeks, months, or even years of their lives. As they look at you, you may see a light shining through their eyes. There is no psychological suffering left. They have surrendered and so the person, the mind-made egoic “me,” has already dissolved. They have “died before they died” and found the deep inner peace that is the realization of the deathless within themselves.
∞
To every accident and disaster there is a potentially redemptive dimension that we are usually unaware of.
The tremendous shock of totally unexpected, imminent death can have the effect of forcing your consciousness completely out of identification with form. In the last few moments before physical death, and as you die, you then experience yourself as consciousness free of form. Suddenly, there is no more fear, just peace and a knowing that “all is well” and that death is only a form dissolving. Death is then recognized as ultimately illusory–as illusory as the form you had identified with as yourself.
∞
Death is not an anomaly or the most dreadful of all events as modern culture would have you believe, but the most natural thing in the world, inseparable from and just as natural as its other polarity–birth. Remind yourself of this when you sit with a dying person.
It is a great privilege and a sacred act to be present at a person’s death as a witness and companion.
When you sit with a dying person, do not deny any aspect of that experience. Do not deny what is happening and do not deny your feelings. The recognition that there is nothing you can do may make you feel helpless, sad, or angry. Accept what you feel. Then go one step further: accept that there is nothing you can do, and accept it completely. You are not in control. Deeply surrender to every aspect of that experience, your feelings as well as any pain or discomfort the dying person may be experiencing. Your surrendered state of consciousness and the stillness that comes with it will greatly assist the dying person and ease their transition. If words are called for, they will come out of the stillness within you. But they will be secondary.
With the stillness comes the benediction: peace.
∞
