Time Of Death Is Uncertain

Okay,

So let's do the meditation on the middle three points of the nine point death meditation.

So get yourself into a comfortable but conducive position for doing meditation.

So that means find a balance between being comfortable but not too comfortable,

Not like lounging on your couch.

But try to sit up straight,

Either in a chair or on a cushion on the floor.

Sitting up straight helps your mind to be more clear,

Focused.

But in addition to sitting up straight,

It's important to be relaxed,

Not tight and tense.

Try to relax all the muscles in the body,

Except those that you need to keep your back upright.

And for those who do have back problems,

It may be hard to keep your back completely straight,

So you might need to make some adjustments or compromise to have a good position and a relaxed position.

You can let your eyes close or keep them open a little bit,

So there's light coming in to help you stay awake and alert.

And spend a few minutes being aware of the natural rhythm of the breathing,

The breath flowing in and flowing out.

That's a good way of settling the mind down in the present,

Right here,

Right now.

And if there are other thoughts in your mind about other things not related to what we're doing here,

Put those aside for now.

You can always pick them up again later.

But try to really keep your mind focused on this meditation that we're going to do.

So yesterday morning,

You did a meditation on the first three points of the nine points of the death meditation,

Which are basically about the certainty of death,

The fact that death is definitely going to happen to each one of us and everyone else in the world.

It's just a natural part of life.

And we're heading in that direction all the time.

Our life just keeps getting shorter all the time.

So it's like we're on a journey traveling towards the end of our life,

Towards our death.

Just remember the conclusion you came to after doing that meditation.

Hopefully that death is definitely going to happen to me and there's no way I can avoid it.

And if thinking about death and dying is frightening to you,

Just be aware of that,

Acknowledge that,

Don't be in denial about it.

But at the same time,

Understand that it's something impermanent,

Not permanent.

Just because you're uneasy or frightened about death right now doesn't mean you will always feel that way.

There are things we can do to work on our fear,

Manage it,

And even overcome it,

Get beyond it.

So now let's move on to the second main part of the meditation,

Which is contemplating the uncertainty of the time of our death.

This is important to do because even if we accept that we're going to die,

We might have the feeling that it's not going to happen anytime soon.

We feel that it's way off in the distance in the future,

Years and years and years away.

But can we be sure of that?

So there are three points to reflect on here.

The first is that human lifespan or human life expectancy is not definite.

It isn't the case that every human being who is born will live the same number of years before they die.

Instead,

People die at all different ages of their life.

So it's helpful to bring to mind actual examples,

People you know,

People you've heard of that illustrate this.

So some human beings don't even make it to birth.

They die in the womb.

Others die during the birth process or shortly afterwards.

Others die as infants before they've even learned to walk and so on.

Just think about how at different stages of life,

Infancy,

Childhood,

Teenage years,

Young adults and so on,

Middle age,

People can die.

You'll see a lot of my presentations live Farrells,

Because you'll see none of them GERBERO is dying.

And then bring this understanding to a certain level.

And then bring this understanding to a certain level.

And can you be sure of that?

So then the second point to contemplate,

The second reason as to the uncertainty of the time of death,

Is that there are many causes of death,

Many ways that death can happen.

So this is helpful in case we have the idea that we are healthy,

We don't have any serious illness,

Terminal illness like cancer,

So we're relatively healthy,

So we may feel,

Well,

I'm not going to die anytime soon,

People who have cancer or who have heart disease or had strokes and so on,

Different serious illnesses,

They'll probably die soon,

But not me.

So is this correct to think that way?

So illness is a major cause of death,

But it's not the only one.

There are many other ways that people die,

Different kinds of accidents that can happen while traveling in a car or plane or boat or train or even bicycle or even going for a walk.

So again,

It's helpful to try to bring to mind examples of this that you've heard of,

People you know,

People you've heard of who have died in such a way and how it can happen just so suddenly out of the blue without any warning,

Without expecting it.

So something like that could happen to us as well while we are traveling.

Thanks.

But right now,

Not many of us are traveling.

We're not allowed to.

We're staying at home.

We might feel kind of safe at home,

But there are also things that can happen at home that can cause death.

Fires or gas leakages or natural disasters,

Earthquakes,

Floods,

Forest fires,

Tornadoes,

Depending on where you live.

Even at home,

We're not really safe from death.

Death can still happen and it does happen.

So again,

Think of real examples of this,

People you know,

People you've heard of who died at home.

Just listen to that.

Also,

We are reminded to think about how even things that are normally meant to prolong life to keep us alive and healthy can become causes of death.

For example,

Eating and drinking.

We've probably all heard stories of people who die from eating food that was poisoned or contaminated or eating too much or the food getting stuck in their throat and they choke.

There's also lots of people who die because they're unable to find food and drink.

There's a lot of people who die from eating food that was poisoned or contaminated or contaminated or eating too much or the food getting stuck in their throat and they choke.

There's a lot of people who die from eating food that was poisoned or contaminated or contaminated or contaminated or contaminated or contaminated or contaminated.

Then the third point is that our human body is actually fragile.

We may feel as if our body is strong.

We have a lot of energy.

We can do lots of things.

We may even feel kind of invincible.

Nothing could take me down.

But is this true or is it a fantasy,

An illusion?

This is particularly obvious at this point in time now that we're dealing with this pandemic,

This new virus that just suddenly appeared a couple months ago and is now infecting millions of people around the world and has already caused many deaths and continuing to cause many deaths.

It's something so tiny,

So minute.

We can't even see it with our eyes without the use of a powerful microscope.

This tiny,

Tiny,

Tiny virus is able to cause so many deaths even to people who are very strong,

Well-built,

Healthy.

Just try to get a sense of how the feeling of being strong and healthy and invincible is kind of an illusion,

A fantasy.

Now as a conclusion to the meditation,

See if you can understand that in addition to death being certain,

Something that will definitely happen to us,

When that will happen is uncertain.

We really don't know when it will happen.

We don't know how much more time we have.

And it's even possible death could happen to us this year,

Even this month,

And even today.

And if we see the value of Dharma practice as preparation for death,

It's important not to postpone doing Dharma practice,

But start as soon as we can,

Even right now,

Even today.