"Embrace death as your teacher and free yourself from fear. The lesson is: Love in every moment and live as if it were your last." – Zorba Buddha
„Accept death as your teacher and free yourself from fear. The lesson is: Love in every moment and live as if it were your last.”
The state of deep inner peace is the source of true happiness. When we understand the connections of life, we no longer need to fear anything.
If we are not living as we wish, we must look for the reason in the fears that are holding us back. The primal fear, from which all other fears grow, is the fear of life itself, or the fear of death. The fear of death could also be called the fear of losing life. And with it is connected every other fear of losing anything. To remove the primal fear from our lives, and subsequently all other fears that arise from it, we must pay attention to death and, through it, to life.
Death is part of the earthly life of each and every one of us, every being. As it is said: "No one escapes death, and before death, we are all equal." We will all leave someday because everything has a beginning, change, and an end. All forms are transient. So it is with life, and what we consider the end of this earthly life, we call death. We know that we will die one day, but we don't know when or how. We don't know when our time will be up. Many times we can't understand how someone could die when they were here just yesterday. Death, especially the one we consider tragic, is always just a moment, and not random, because there are no coincidences. Simply, the time has come; our time in this earthly life has come to an end. Everything we’ve experienced in life has led us to this moment, to be exactly where we are at this moment. We can't escape death, and if we are to die, we will die. There is nothing to be done about it. We can only accept it as a fact and make peace with it. The story "Death in Tehran" from Viktor Frankl’s book Man's Search for Meaningbeautifully captures this: A wealthy and powerful Persian was once walking in his garden with one of his servants. Suddenly, the servant screamed that he had just encountered Death, who had threatened him. He begged his master to give him the fastest horse so he could escape and get to Tehran by evening. His master agreed, and the servant rode off at full speed. When the master returned to the house, he encountered Death and asked, "Why did you scare my servant and threaten him?" "I did not threaten him," Death replied, "I was just surprised to find him here when I was supposed to meet him tonight in Tehran."
That’s exactly how it is. We say, "What if this or that had happened differently?" But in the reality of life, there is no "what if." Everything is now, and it is as it should be. Everything happened exactly as it was meant to happen, because it did happen. Exactly as it happened. That means it could not have happened any other way. A similar example of the story of Death in Tehran I saw once in the news. In Turkey, there was an earthquake, and a woman lost three children in it. I even took a photo of it to remind me that no one can escape death. The headline was: "Munih fled the war from Syria. 'I lost three children. We escaped death from Syria, and it caught up with us here.'"
Realizing this truth gives us the opportunity to use the time we’ve been given not waiting for death or fearing it, but in the service of life. The knowledge that one day we will leave and that nothing but our actions will be taken from here gives us the chance to free ourselves from the fear of loss and begin living in love. This truth is beautifully described in The Four Agreements, where the Angel of Death comes to us with the words: "You know, everything that exists here is mine, not yours. Your house, your partner, your children, your car, your career, your money – all of it is mine, and I can take it whenever I want. For now, though, you may enjoy it."
If we understand this truth, that nothing is ours, that we own nothing, and we take nothing material with us from this earthly life, we will stop fearing the loss of anything. Because we can only lose what belongs to us, what we own. And since we own nothing except our lives, which also one day ends, we cannot lose anything. We all came to this world as free souls. We came alone, and we will leave alone. We have our own path, and everyone should respect that. This path is ours alone and it should be authentic. We must live our own lives and not live the lives of others. What others consider right may not be good or right for us. As the whole universe is in motion and everything evolves and changes, so does our consciousness and internal setting. Nothing is eternal. We should understand that no one and nothing belongs to us. We cannot lose our partner because we do not own them. They are free, just like us, and whenever the relationship no longer fulfills them and they feel the need to move on, we will let them go with love and gratitude. We cannot lose our children because we do not own them. Children, like us, are human beings, Souls, who came into this world through us. We help them grow up and accept their own path, just as we did when we became adults. We cannot lose land because we do not own the planet. It belongs to all. The lines we have drawn, we humans invented. The Earth will be here forever; we just won't be here anymore. Everything is transient. This is the level of consciousness when we understand that we are all free, and each of us’s freedom is only as long as it doesn’t limit the freedom of others. That is respect. And acting with love means we respect this freedom for each other. We do not blame anyone for their actions, we do not manipulate anyone, we do not shout at anyone, we do not get angry with anyone, because we understand that everyone has their own path, their own development, and always acts in the best way they know at any given moment and level of consciousness. We have no right to judge or punish anyone for not seeing life the way we do, or for wanting to live their own way, differently from us.
This does not mean we have to give up everything. Society and life in the age we live in do not function that way. For coexistence at the given level of collective consciousness, we have set rules and laws that, when followed, provide a certain level of freedom for everyone. When we talk about ownership, we speak from a different perspective because it allows us to free ourselves from the fear of loss and fully enjoy everything life has to offer. Now we will know that everything is transient, and when we stop clinging to forms and free ourselves from the fear of loss, we will perceive the true beauty of life. We will begin to live without fear and create our reality in love.
If we want to stop fearing and free our minds from fears, we must accept death as an inevitable part of life. In this mindset, there is no reason to fear death because there is no point in fearing or wasting time on something we cannot influence. What we can influence is how we live. How we use the time given to us. Ancient Romans left us the message "Carpe Diem," which loosely translated means we should enjoy every moment as if it were our last. Because we don’t know which one will be our last. So why do most of us not live that way? Because fear holds us back. A beautiful example of life without fear or in fear is the diagnosis of a terminal illness. For some, the disease takes away the last drop of courage to live, while for others, they thank the disease. That was the case with my friend who got cancer. He should have been gone long ago, but he’s still here. And he looks healthier than when he was healthy. One day he told me, "I am grateful for cancer because it taught me how to live." Since I don’t know how long I’ll be here and I know I can die at any moment, I no longer fear anything. I have no fear, and I rejoice in life. Before, I lived only in constant stress.” And he came to terms with death. He said, "Look, I should have been gone by now, but I'm still here, and many who were healthy are no longer here."
And that's why, let's live without fear and enjoy the worldly pleasures, they are here for us. There are so many of us on this planet that it’s not only necessary but also inevitable. We live in a time of money, production, trade, services, art, and travel… and for people to have money, which they then spend, they need the opportunity to earn it. Everything is interconnected and influences each other. Let’s produce, buy, and enjoy services, but let’s not tie the quality of our lives only to the amount of money, vacations, houses, cars, careers, relationships, or social status... External circumstances or worldly pleasures should not be our priority. Our priority should be our inner state, which creates our reality and goes with us wherever we go. How we perceive ourselves, others, and life, what we do at any given moment, and how we do it is determined by the level of our consciousness, which sets the perspective of how we perceive life. Whether we vibrate on the frequency of fear or love. Whether we are afraid to express ourselves or not. Whether we are authentic or living the lives of others out of fear. As St. Augustine said, "Love and do what you will." The key word here is "love," which we could replace with "true love." A conscious program, to act for the benefit of all. Never causing harm with our actions and doing so that everyone benefits, including ourselves. The joy we bring to others is also our joy. And therefore, the only limitation to everything we do is that we do it with love. We can do everything as long as our actions do not harm anyone. We can never please everyone, but what matters is our motivation. We know we are living authentically in truth, love, and peace, and that we consciously do not want to harm anyone with our actions. What others think about us and our actions is their programming, and it’s not important for our lives. What matters is our motivation to act in love. Everyone’s actions and their results may be different, but the motivation to act in love can be the same for all. When we program ourselves for love, and every thought, feeling, belief, and action comes from this program, we will no longer be able to be bad or hurt anyone with our actions. Can you imagine life without judgment or criticism, where we can no longer be mean or hurt anyone with our actions? This state can be achieved by all of us, and it means HEALTH. Mental, emotional, and physical health.
So what lesson does death bring us? Let us treat ourselves, others, and life with love