Facing Death through Yoga and Meditation

 by Swami Nishchalananda Saraswati

Our attitude towards death is contradictory. We constantly see death around us, yet part of us thinks ‘it will never happen to me’. Though we would rather not hear about it nor discuss it, it has a morbid fascination for us. We are attached to life and so we reject and deny our own death. In our desperation we pretend that our appointment with death will never arrive, whilst in our hearts we know that, of all events in our life, it is the most certain. As George Bernard Shaw once said:

‘Death is the ultimate statistic - one out of one of us dies.’

And yet most of us postpone considering our own death until forced to by illness, old age, a near death experience, or the death of a friend or relative. We see the sand in the hour glass of time flowing away and we know that every moment is taking us closer to our own doom. On a conscious and subconscious level, we fear death and this creates an underlying dissatisfaction in our lives. As Henry Thoreau so aptly put it:

‘Most people live lives of quiet desperation.’

Different Viewpoints. The materialistic viewpoint regards individual life as a chance occurrence in a vast, menacing and unknown universe. Death is seen as the snuffing out of individual life and the return to the bottomless void. Religions seem to have very different attitudes towards death. In Judaism, Christianity and Islam, it is generally regarded as a one-off chance to go to some kind of heaven, or, failing to make the grade, one is sent to hell and eternal damnation. In Hinduism and Buddhism, death is viewed as just one minor event in a cyclic process of rebirth and transmigration, one stage on a spiralling ladder of evolution, again determined by merit or lack of it.

From a Yogic point of view, death is regarded as an integral part of Life in a wider sense of the word, where old ways of living end and new ways begin. Yoga has always emphasised the importance of facing death before we die. Otherwise we may, at the point of death, be overwhelmed by extreme fear and, perhaps, by an all consuming feeling that we have wasted our lives. Moreover, according to Yoga, going deeper into the nature of death before we actually die gives us an invaluable opportunity of realising that aspect of our Being which is deathless. Death is seen as the opening of the door to Eternity and to Life beyond the ego.

Death and Suffering. Fear of death is a major cause of human suffering. A few thousand years ago, the Sage Patanjali wrote in his classical text, the Yoga Sutra, that the basic causes of human suffering are fivefold: avidya (spiritual ignorance), asmita (egoism), raga (desire or attachment), dwesha (denial or aversion) and abhinivesha (fear of death or clinging to life). This still applies today as it did then. By gaining insight into these five aspects of suffering, we can also gain a deeper understanding of our own death and, more importantly, insight into That part of us which is deathless.

Avidya is not ignorance in an academic sense, but failure (or incapacity) to realise the difference between That which is permanent (underlying Spirit or Consciousness) and those things which are impermanent (everything we can perceive through the mind and senses and every aspect of our daily lives including our physical body). Avidya is a fundamental state of spiritual ignorance - of not knowing one’s Real Nature, of not knowing who ‘I am.’ This ignorance leads to asmita, a total and all-consuming identification and obsession with one’s individuality. We assume that our existence is nothing but our personality and we become self-centred and full of self-importance. In completely identifying with our personality, we become conditioned by raga, attachment or clinging to pleasure, possessions and friends - and also to its opposite, dvesha, aversion to pain, difficult situations and those people who don’t bolster our ego. One feels attracted to those things which give pleasure and repelled by those things which give displeasure. We encourage events and people which reinforce our ego-sense and discourage events and people which diminish it. Because we are attached to our ego-sense, abhinivesha, fear of death, arises; we tremble at the thought of our destruction as an individual.

Is there Existence after Death or Not? To go deeper in our understanding of life and death, our place in the scheme of existence and whether ‘something’ remains of us after death, we need to look deeply at our spiritual ignorance, our ego (sense of individuality) and the functioning of our mind. Yoga and Meditation help us to refine our perception and encourage this process of discovering what we are on a deeper level. In this way, we can gain insight into the nature of death and what is beyond. In the Katha Upanishad, the young boy Nachiketa asks:

‘O Yama, Lord of Death, dispel this doubt of mine. Does a person live after death or does he not?’

This is a fundamental question which each one of us should ask ourselves before we die not on our death bed or tomorrow, but NOW. If we are to truly fulfil our lives we need to know, conclusively, the answer to this question. Yoga helps us in this endeavour.

(Incidentally, the main part of the Katha Upanishad is devoted to Yama’s reply. Read the text yourself, but remember that his answer can only be understood if we deepen and refine our perception through Meditation.)

Dying in Loneliness. Until quite recently, both in the east and the west, one generally died surrounded by relatives and friends (if one was lucky!). In the present era, more and more people are dying in old age homes and in hospitals. There is a complete lack of guidance for the dying. This brings enormous suffering to millions of people who die uncared for, unloved, lonely and stricken with fear of the unknown. Work pioneered by people such as Elisabeth Kübler-Ross and Stephen Levine among others has led to the hospice movement and the exploration of ways of helping people to deal more effectively with death.

Those in the presence of the dying recognise their own inability to deal with death (both of others and their own) with its accompanying feelings of helplessness. If someone close to you is dying, what do you do? Do you shrug your shoulders, take a few tranquillisers, have a ‘ciggy’, go for a walk, or perhaps preach religious and philosophical inanities which you don’t believe in yourself? In any case, the death of a friend or relative is not easy to deal with. But do you add to the despair of the dying person or, by your compassion and wisdom, do you help him or her to die more peacefully? Unless you have gone a little deeper in your own understanding of the nature of death, you will most likely exacerbate the situation by sowing the seeds of hopelessness. By confronting death, our own death, now, whilst life is in full flow, and gaining insight into its nature, we are empowered to more effectively help others in their dying days or moments. Yoga helps us in this process.

A Glimpse Behind the Scenes. During the past few years, a number of books have been published which give anecdotes of people who have clinically died, but who have gone ‘beyond’ and come back to life. They have been enriched, so to say, by a glimpse behind the scenes. Most speak of a mystical experience which has transformed the quality of their daily lives. Centres are opening up to help people die consciously, to help remove fear and to achieve Altered States of Consciousness (ASC) through the process of death. Yoga practice can play an indispensable part in these centres since its very purpose is to open us up to ASC.

Meditation Opens Our Eyes. Meditation is a means of confronting death whilst we are still alive. This is not just morbidity but can lead us to a deeper understanding of what we really are as human beings. It gives us an insight into the deeper implications of death and our nature as embodiments of an underlying Intelligence. Meditation gives us access to Reality. This is why Meditation is such an important part of Yoga and other spiritual disciplines. It gives us a glimpse into that aspect of us which is unchanging, or undying.

This path of consciously confronting death has already been explored by Yogis who have handed on their insights, teachings and wisdom to us. It is for us to gain from their experiences and to find out the deeper nature of death, and life, for ourselves. But we should begin this investigation NOW whilst we are alive. We should not postpone as most of us do.

Useful books to read on death:
• 'Death - the Greatest Fiction' by Osho
• ‘Who Dies’ by Stephen Levine
• ‘The Tibetan Book of the Dead’ by Trungpa & Fremantle
• ‘The Human Encounter with Death’ by Grof & Halifax
• ‘Beyond Death’ by Grof
• ‘Meditation and the Art of Dying’ by Pandit Usharbudh Arya
• ‘The Facts of Death’ by Simpson
• ‘Life after Life’ by Moody
• ‘The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying’ by Sogyal Rimpoche
• ‘Other Lives Other Selves’ by Roger Woolger
• ‘Death - The Final Stage of Growth’ by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross
• ‘A Year to Live’ by Stephen Levine pub. Thorsons (Harper Collins).