cùxiáguǐ
There are two points in life when one, if fully aware of what life and death entails, can seem to make a conscious choice, albeit riddled with conditioning, to live.
The first arises when one appears to be fully conscious, but embroiled in circumstances ruled by what we term civilization, which is far from what nature might call living. At that point, looking at those around, one can see what we, perhaps impolitely, may call the "walking dead."
One has a choice then to join them in the Samsaric Exciting Dance of Death until the bio-computer is unplugged or to alternatively choose a gentle walk through the Samsaric world of Well-Being.
The Second point arises, and I am at that point now, when one detects the possibility that your Natural task of life may be complete and that Death now beckons and declares, "My friend, you have lived correctly and well, now it is time to close off that magnificent consciousness that you have enjoyed."
It as though there is a point when dawn appears and life can begin and there is another point when dusk approaches.
THE WALKING DEAD
The Walking Dead are in this Samsara that is stained, but are not easy to detect.
They do not appear as they do in the visual arts, ambling without an apparent mind or the ability to even walk in a straight line, arms outstretched intent on some destructive task, searching, searching, searching like hungry ghosts.
No, they appear as normal human creatures intent on the pursuit of evasive happiness. If they suffer it is well disguised. They smile occasionally and perhaps inside cry a great deal. They are your family, your neighbors and your friends.
They are dressed as priests, policemen, politicians, teachers, plumbers and many in these days with the robes of unemployment. But everyone seeks to go somewhere that they cannot see clearly and cannot grasp and to be someone or something that gives them value, status or enjoyment that actually can never satisfy them.
Look in the mirror of Truth if you dare and you may see that you too are one of those Walking Dead.
When you near forty, if you have not chosen to live, you will be able to look back on the past and with great fortune see that you have been living the life of the Walking Dead. You will see an empty life and may look forward to the future and ask yourself, if you have the guts, to stop that rigid Dance of Death and become a human being that lives with confidence, fearlessness and the joy of belonging without the slightest concern of where he is going or what he is.
There can be nothing more sad than to imagine yourself at death eventually looking back upon your apparent life and seeing that somehow you have dismally failed to understand what life is all about and that now it is too late.
After your brain death you will go to the hell or heaven you believe you deserve within your still operating consciousness for about forty-five days. Then it all stops. You will not even be conscious enough to feel relief.
When the vine is cut the Mango dies and disappears forever.
There is no more coming back for a second try. Brother, you have chosen to be a Walking Dead searching eternally for a false happiness, persuading yourself that that is life.
You will balance the false happiness that is accompanied always by the potential for suffering and try with cognitive dissonance to let the happiness dish appear as more weighted. If you are unfortunate the balance will be so unequal that the anxiety and depression that is now with you, accompanied by medical Folly Pills, which will probably make you feel better but eventually kill you, will seem much too much to bear.
The Walking Dead may call out to the particular God they have invented or the Saints. They will no doubt remember the plagues and the torment and the flood and say that after all their God is doing all this for their own good.
They will search for Permanence when there is Impermanence; Order where there is Chaos; Peace where there is Conflict; Existence where there is none and, perhaps most tragic of all, a Meaning for their lives when there is absolutely no significance or divine design.
They do not see that all they have to do is step out of that body and mind of the Walking Dead and accept Life.
Yet incredible though it may seem, few do this and the majority if they do step out, step from frying pan into fire by choosing just a another way of Walking in Death, or are enveloped by confusion, their own greed or their aversion and put on once again the finery of their Samsaric Tomb.
WHY IS IT SO DIFFICULT TO STOP WALKING MIDST DEATH?
Alexander Pope declared:
Hope springs eternal in the human breast:
Man never is, but always to be blessed.
But man is never blessed because HOPE has as its bedfellow EXPECTATION.
And that expectation is built upon the craving and clinging of Identity.
The question is whether there exists a natural Hope that has no Expectation attached? There is not, so it is better to abandon hope.
Over the Gates of Inferno it is said by Dante there exists a sign which advises:
"Abandon Hope all those who enter here."
It would be better written if it was declared over the crib of every newborn child.
The problem for the Walking Dead is that they have to give up so much.
You see, the Walking Dead are not free to walk where they will. They are held by puppet strings. The question is, who pulls the puppet strings?
Interestingly, the puppet strings are pulled by all the other Walking Dead.
If one chooses "life" then hope will never be required.
The difficult task is then to cut those strings -all of them- and to cut the strings that you hold that manipulate the behavior of others.
NATURAL APPROACHING DUSK
When Gotama Buddha reached the dusk of his life, he told Ananda that if Ananda had insisted then he could have remained longer within Samsara.
Does this mean that one can choose not to accept death?
No it does not, for no one can change the facts of old age and eventual death as the biological system winds down. What is possible is not to reject death by insisting mentally on an aimless struggle to live or to allow death to approach prematurely. Both these actions are Identity-controlled.
The natural system of Homeostasis detects well the winding down of the system and the gradual closing down of consciousness. It resists only when there is clear evidence that there is "life in the old dog yet" and that it is not yet time for the consciousness to "let go."
Homeostasis requires to be provided with data that there is still "Life Function" to be performed within the limits of "Physical potential."
External data is provided by the presence of the continual experience of Gladness related to the correct and natural reactions of the apparent person.
In other words, the signal required by homeostasis is the Gladness produced in others as a consequence of their "true self" action. If that is linked with your own "true self" action, of "active Dharma," then the force of Awareness does not run down... and the mental Dusk is retarded.
The only thing that homeostasis then can do when body death is detected, and there is no present "mind" reason to continue, is increase the range and level of Mindfulness that may activate new other-directed "true self action" in quite a different direction. The flame of Awareness is then rekindled.
Let me put that in a more simple way. When there exists an active impulse that is other-directed and feedback confirms Dharma success then the mind accepts the presence of nearing physical death, but persists in active Dharma to the last moment.
When there is no presence of the Gladness of Dharma success then the process of physical death is not delayed and is invited to step closer.