Tulku Thondup

Quotes on Aging and Mortality Related Issues Tulku Thondup - Peaceful Death, Joyful Rebirth




Writing on the Subject of:	Writing on the Subject of:
How we precondition ourselves for what we expect at our time of death: ...while the details of our habits differ across cultures, we all share -- regardless where we're from -- a mentality of seeing the world in terms of rewards and penalties for right and wrong. We constantly bounce between hope and fear under the all-seeing eyes of some imagined higher authority or judge. Our perceptions are soaked in this judgmental mentality. That is why, when we have been unvirtuous, we fear being judged and after death will perceive a judge handling us as a harsh sentence.	How our social structures and physical trappings fall away at out time of death: Trying to take care of a dead person by performing dance ceremonies can be the saddest yet most serene and honest time of our lives. We have no appetite to aspire to anything else as we summoned from the depth of our being all the support that we can for this person's crucial journey into the unknown world. At the site of a dying or dead person, prayers come from the heart, uttered with our whole mind and body. The truth of life, it's fragility, is naked before us. For the departed, all the structures of dignity, career, and earnings have unexpectedly collapsed. Even their most cherished body is humbled, lying cold, stiff, and motionless with no breath -- dead.
On death's power to focus the mind: Death as a way of focusing the mind as practically nothing else does. When we contemplate our mortality and the increments of life, it is hard not to feel a sense of urgency to make the most of our precious human life. Understanding the principle of impermanence makes us realistic about life's true characteristics and inspires us to improve without wasting a moment. We all know that our zero hour will arrive, but we don't know when or how it will come. We simply take it for granted that our life will last a long time.	On the ever-changing nature of life and its actual lack of continuity: We all know Although life seems to possess the continuing existence, it is a chain of events fluctuating from moment to moment. The phases of birth and death alternate back and forth continuously, like the turning faces and bodies of dancers. One after another, moment after moment, changes in life come endlessly, like the beads on a rosary as our fingers moved from bead to be. Not only life, but everything else -- nature, friendships, possessions, and positions -- is ever-changing.