The Importance of Dying

The self-help and motivation industry depends immensely on our urge to live (or to live until we buy one more book or service).

Being the devil's advocate I am, I am proposing that we should make an active and sincere attempt to die.

Contemplations on death are as old as history. 'Memento Mori', The turban that will be one's funeral garments, even lives lived with utmost ethical sincerity, all the noble sacrifices point to our collective consciousness of death. Flawed they are, maybe, admirable nevertheless.

The flaw lies in the fact that they sought or depended on something greater than life. An afterlife, a motherland devoid of enemies, greater good… You name it. Death as the unconquerable enemy, as 'THE END!' is such a depressing idea that we did anything and everything to circumnavigate that.^[1]

I propose you die, you die with a complete psychological image of what death really is, what it means to be dead. Die in every exhalation, like you live while you breathe in. Die slowly while nature cushions your footprints with grasses and daisies. Die a thousand times when you perform eulogies with sincerity. Die while the present passes away to the past and live in the future that just came to be present. Stretch the inevitable 'full stop at the end' to a tapestry of fireflies. Die till you die completely and there is no more death, there is no 'no', and no 'more' for you.

Understand this, you will die whether you want or not. But choosing to die knowing what it really signifies and where it stands in harmony with your living is a thing I dare you to try.