Deaths of those we know can be inspiring, or at the least, motivating. A hero's death can cause us to reflect on our raison d'etre. Conscious deaths can bring our being to new potentials and if you have followed my writings then you know that I regard death with awareness to be the living doorway to mystical insight. There are an unending stream of deaths that are presented to us as we wend our way down life's path. These can be in our immediate family, in our extended family, in our accidental surroundings, in our intentional surroundings, in the news, as a result of human undertakings, as a result of nature's vagaries, accidents, genetic coding, or just plain “old age.” In all cases death surrounds us and challenges us and confronts us and will not let us loose, whether we be a candidate Buddha or just another commoner.

In scriptures death is presented as something more than the incidental punctuation of alleged accomplishments. It is used to motivate change within the lives of those that continue in this illusion. Most consciously one is sometimes asked to do “impermanence” practice[s]. I will give a few examples:

1)    You visualize your own death as many as 100,000 times. In doing this you go through as many variations of your possible death as you can come up with, accidental and “natural.” Further you visualize the funeral itself, the memorial service, the body being burned, or laid to rest in the dirt below. At the funeral you watch those that have come – the passionate, the weeping, the self-serving, the praising, the bored, the personal acquaintances, and the family. You watch them not only there but you enter their lives and watch the way in which they are now different. Obviously this type of practice takes quite a bit of time and commitment, just trying to do this one thousand times will likely take you a year, doing it 100,000 times can take forever, but I strongly suggest you try it, that you take, at the least, a few steps down this path.

2)    That in unifying heart, body, and mind in a dimensional world of a linear timeframe [past, present, and future] you put your forehead on the ground 100,000 times. These prostrations are your symbolic presentation of surrender. What are you surrendering? You are surrendering your “small” ideas, in a nutshell the idea that “you” are an accomplishing agent, that “you” are getting something important done, in fact, that “you” are getting anything at all done! If you “chew” on that insight for awhile you will see the premise of falseness within most human activity. Does this mean that despair and malaise will follow? No, it does not. Something marvelous awaits those that make this effort. When someone comes to me and outlines a particular problem that has no obvious solution I often advise them to go to sleep. If they awaken and the problem still exists, just go to sleep again, and repeat this cycle until it is no longer large and stressful. This actually works. Try it!

Marlon Brando left his large and aging body behind a few weeks ago, and left a lot of folks scrambling for insights into his enigmatic life. I watched the interview that he did with Larry King in 1994 twice more and found it quite delightful. They were like two punch-drunk fighters trying to spar once more, both having brought more questions than answers to the repartee.

Another recent death actually motivated me to write this piece. Andrew N.S. Glazer, “The Poker Pundit” at 48 years of age, a writer and non-practicing attorney, without advance notice, is gone. Andy has been a productive writer for some time around backgammon and then poker. He came from Atlanta to Esalen [Big Sur, California] for two weeks and stayed there for two years, transforming his life and rethinking his goals. We were to write a piece together right now to be published under his byline which I had put off from May of this year to July, asking him if that was okay. “Fine” he replied, “we are in no rush.” An answer that disturbs me now. Haunts me would be too strong, but is not completely wrong either. So I will take my own advice and sleep on it. Several times.