We are all going to execution in the same cart: how can I hate someone or wish someone harm? Sir Thomas More, before he was beheaded.
Think about how to die every morning. Refresh your mind with thoughts of death every night. Educate your mind. When your thought constantly revolves around death, your life path will be straight and simple. Your will will do your duty, your shield will become impenetrable. From the commandments of the Japanese samurai
"Memento mori" - remember death
You cannot escape death. Somewhere in the future, you will definitely meet her and die. It is a fact. Many of us are afraid of death and run away from it, causing ourselves a lot of inconvenience. But there is another way, and on this path it is death that can become our best friend. Become the wisest advisor. This understanding can radically change the life of any person.
There is a well-known Latin saying "mors certa, hora incerta" - "the most definite in life is death, the most indefinite is its hour." Indeed, most often a person is not given to know the hour of his death, and he thinks that this will happen in the distant future. And in fact, he considers himself immortal. And what could be worse than immortality? In the epics of many peoples there are parables where the most severe punishment is precisely immortality. Remember the "Eternal Jew" Ahasuerus - when Jesus, exhausted under the weight of the cross, went to Calvary and wanted to rest, Ahasuerus shouted to him from the crowd “go, go”, for which he was punished with immortality. It is the acceptance of the fact of death that makes us human and helps us to follow this path, which is called LIFE.
There are many examples when a person completely changes, realizing that he will soon die. True, it is often too late. It's too late to live. The renowned death researcher Dr. Küblerr-Ross published the book Death - the last stage of growth, where she collected numerous examples of how people change dramatically when they realize the inevitability of death. So the American Senator Paul Tsongans, having contracted an incurable cancer, wrote that it was the disease that made him accept the fact that he would someday die. He realized that a person has a need for the spiritual, regardless of whether he is sick or healthy, and for this understanding he thanked his illness - cancer. When surgeon Robert M. Mack learned that he had inoperable lung cancer, he was confused and close to despair, but then, accepting the irreversibility of near death, he wrote: “I am happier,than ever before. These days are actually the best days of my life, "and adds:" The deep irony of human existence is that many of us only after a severe trauma or even near death will recognize the true purpose of existence and understand how to live."
The idea of using death to change life has been successfully used in many cultures. But, perhaps, Carlos Castaneda was able to express this idea most clearly and simply.
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When doubts and fears begin to overcome the warrior, he thinks about his death. The thought of death is the only thing that can temper our spirit.
Death is everywhere. It may look like the headlights of a car driving up the hill behind us. It can remain visible for a while, and then disappear into the darkness, as if it had left us for a while, but it reappears on the next hill, and then disappear again. These are the lights on the head of death. She puts them on like a hat before galloping. She lit these lights, rushing in pursuit of us. Death is relentlessly pursuing us, and with every second it is getting closer and closer. Death never stops. It's just that sometimes she turns off the lights. But it does not change anything…
By the time a person realizes the frightening nature of knowledge, he also realizes that death on this path is a faithful companion, an irreplaceable partner who is always there. Death is the main factor that turns knowledge into energy, into real power. Everything ends with the touch of death, and everything that it touches becomes Power.
Only the acceptance of the idea of death can give a warrior sufficient detachment to force himself to do anything, as well as to not give up anything. He knows that death is on his heels and will not give him time to catch on to anything, so he tries everything without getting attached to anything.
Death is our eternal companion. She is always to our left, at arm's length, and death is the only wise counsel that a warrior always has. Every time a warrior feels that everything is going very badly and he is on the verge of total collapse, he turns to the left and asks his death if this is so. And his death replies that he is wrong and that apart from her touch, there is nothing that really matters. His death says: "But I haven't touched you yet!"
In a world where death hunts everyone, there is no time for regret or doubt. There is only time to make decisions, And it doesn't matter what those decisions will be. Nothing is more or less serious and important than something else. In a world where death is the hunter, there are no big or small decisions. The only solution is that the warrior must face his inevitable death.
The warrior must focus on the link between him and his death, discarding regret, sadness, and anxiety. Focus on the fact that he has no time. And act in accordance with this knowledge. Each of his actions becomes his last battle on earth. Only in this case each of his actions will have power. Otherwise, everything that a person does in his life will remain the actions of a fool.
Death awaits us, and what we do at this very moment may well be our last battle on this earth. I call it a battle because it is a struggle. The vast majority of people go from action to action without struggle and without thoughts. A warrior-hunter, on the other hand, carefully weighs his every action. And since he is very familiar with his death, he acts judiciously, as if his every action is the last battle. Only a fool can fail to notice how much a warrior-hunter is superior to his neighbors - ordinary people. The Hunter Warrior treats his final battle with due respect. And it is only natural that the last act should be the best. It gives him pleasure. And dulls fear.
A warrior is just a man, just a man. He cannot interfere with the plans of death. But his impeccable spirit, which gained strength after going through unimaginable difficulties, is undoubtedly able to stop death for a while. And this time is enough for the warrior to enjoy the last time the memory of his power. It can be said that this is a conspiracy that death enters into with one whose spirit is flawless.
Death is a necessary adjunct to "must believe." Without awareness of death, everything becomes ordinary, insignificant. The world is therefore an immeasurable mystery because death is constantly tracking us down. Without awareness of the presence of our death, there is neither power nor mystery. The duty to believe that the world is mysterious and incomprehensible is an expression of the warrior's deepest predisposition.
All living entities are eager to die. This is a truth that a warrior cannot but be aware of. Realization stops death.
A warrior always lives side by side with death. A warrior knows that death is always near, and from this knowledge he draws courage to face anything. Death is the worst thing that can happen to us. But since death is our destiny and it is inevitable, we are free. Those who have lost everything have nothing to fear.
Try to imagine - now, right now, you have learned that you have only one day left to live. In exactly twenty-four hours, you will die. It is no longer possible to influence this. Do you think this will change your life? Will your actions become different? What will you do in this day? So, for example, the main character of Paolo Cuelio's novel "Veronica Wants to Die" reacted to the message about her death exactly twenty-four hours later.
***
- How much more do I have left? - repeated Veronica, while the nurse was busy with her.
- Day. Twenty four hours. Maybe less.
She lowered her eyes and bit her lip. But she kept her composure.
“Then I want to ask you this. First, give me some medicine, give me some injection - whatever, but only so that I don't fall asleep, so that I can use every minute I have left. I am very sleepy, but I want to stay awake, I need to do a lot - something that I always put off for later, thinking that I would live forever, and what I lost interest in when I came to the conclusion that life is not worth living.
“Secondly, I want to get out of here to die there, in freedom. I have to climb to the Ljubljana Castle, which I never bothered to see up close. I have to speak to a woman who sells chestnuts in winter and flowers in spring. How many times have we met, but I have never asked how she lives. I want to walk in the frost without a jacket and feel the piercing cold - I was always wrapped up, I was afraid of catching a cold.
I want to feel the melting snowflakes on my face, smile at the men I like, happily agreeing if someone offers a cup of coffee. I have to kiss my mother, say that I love her, cry on her chest, not ashamed of my feelings, which I used to hide.
Maybe I'll go to church and look at those icons that never said anything to me, but now they will say something. If any man I like invites me to a nightclub, I will dance with him all night long. Then I will go to bed with him - but not as before with others - now with pretended indifference, now with pretended passion. I want to surrender myself to a man, a city, life - and, finally, death."
This story has a good ending - Veronica remained alive, but the fact of accepting death changed her life forever.
