Training in Compassion 20: Practice for Death as Well as Life

Our trainings in compassion are adapted from the series of Tibetan slogans called Lojong. Today, number 20: Practice for Life as Well as Death.

You could say that the whole point of spiritual practice is to prepare for death. French writer, Charles Peguy, wrote:

“A person doesn’t die from this or that disease. He dies from his whole life.”

Many people become religious or spiritual as they near death. Death is powerful, very immediate, and a great motivator. But if you wait till the time when death is close to begin your practice, it may well be too late. It is much better to spend time in your life working on your spiritual practice so at the time of death it will be there for you.

With years of practice while you’re still more-or-less healthy, when you’re dying, instead of being subject to a mind full of confusion and dread, it will be possible for you to meditate on love and compassion. If we have spent time in our life cultivating our spiritual practice until we see our whole life as practice, then it may be possible that our death can be not a tragedy but something much more.

Even in the last moments of life, you can breathe in and you can breathe out. You can breathe in the suffering and breathe out healing and relief. Practice now, and when death approaches you may be able to remember, as you breathe in and out, all the things that you have been practicing for many years. You can remember that life is like a dream (which was training number 2)and that life has only ever been things coming and going, insubstantially, mysteriously.

Breathe in; breathe out; be where you are. All the training and teachings of spiritual practice come down to just that. So simple – yet not so easy to do. We have so many complications.

* * *

For the full version of this post: SEE HERE.