Note 9: Art of Living Consciously

Death is the very impetus to live life fully. Yet why do people fear it so deeply? In truth, it is not death itself that terrifies, but the sense of losing everything. Awareness of death, however, illuminates life. To grasp this is to eliminate the unnecessary, to focus on what truly matters.

Bharata once instructed a man to circumambulate the city, holding a bowl filled with oil, warning him, “If even a single drop falls, you will be put to death.” The man completed his journey and returned to the palace. Bharata asked, “What did you see on the streets of the city?” The man replied, “Nothing. I saw only my life, imprisoned in this bowl.”

The realization of death concentrates energy, unifying it. Only when energy is centralized can it be directed toward awakening.

A man once asked an ascetic, “You are wise—tell me, how many days shall I live?” The ascetic replied, “Eight days. On the ninth day, you shall die.” Astonished, the man returned home and immersed himself in meditation. He forgot all else, attending only to the thought of death. Eight days passed, and on the ninth, he returned to the ascetic. “It has not happened,” he said. “I am still alive.”

The ascetic replied, “No. You are no longer alive. You have lived only those eight days. What you call life beyond that is merely passing time. That which you have spent without awareness is no different from death.”

Indeed, what most call living is merely the passage of life.

Mulla once said, “I died.” A friend exclaimed, “But you are alive! Where did you die?” Mulla replied, “My wife has died. I was alive only for her. Now that she is gone, how can I be alive? I am dead.”

Most people live for others. They pour their life into the expectations, opinions, and presence of others—and in doing so, they lose the sense of death, slipping into stupor. True living, however, is living for oneself. This is not selfishness; it is the only way to give life its true meaning—a meaning long forgotten.

We spend our actions trying to appear good in the eyes of others, unaware that in this striving, life itself slips away. Meditation draws us back to ourselves. And to draw closer to oneself is to face, to embrace, and to understand death—not as terror, but as the clarifying force that reveals what it truly means to live.