Impermanence

Ask yourself these two questions: Do I remember at every moment that I am dying, and that everyone and everything else is, and so treat all beings at all times with compassion? Has my understanding become so keen and so urgent that I am devoting every second to the pursuit of enlightenment? If you can answer “yes” to both of these, then you really understand impermanence.
Sogyal Rinpoche
Glimpse After Glimpse

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I've always considered spiritual practices featuring a  morbid obsession with death to be fear based and, therefore, unworthy of my attention until I read The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying by Sogyal Rinpoche. Here was another take on death that wasn’t morbid at all. It was about living life to its fullest… isn’t that what enlightenment is really about?  If I am living in fear of death my motivation is that of a reward in an undetermined future whether that reward is in heaven, purgatory, hell, or in any other Nirvana. We in Alcoholics Anonymous can be heard to say, “We can’t be frightened by Hell because we have already been there!” And, furthermore, “We are drawn by the promise of Heaven because we have had a taste of it in this life.” By simply cleaning house, trusting God (the Heart of Compassion) and giving myself to helping others so afflicted it has worked for me and I am so very sure that it will work for anyone else.

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