28 ~ Speaking of Death.

"A learning apron"... How beautiful, isn’t it? Can you feel the love in this phrase? Isn’t it like a caress to the soul?

Death, as the Tibetans say, is a state of transition that gives life a different meaning. It is an opportunity for liberation, the possibility of transcendence. Seen in this way, it gives life a new value, a new depth, and a new importance. A great opportunity to make it worthwhile, knowing that it is finite, yet at the same time eternal.That this is just one life, but at the same time, there are many...

How paradoxical, isn’t it? Finite yet eternal. The body is finite, the soul or consciousness eternal.

The vessel we inhabit today has an expiration date, but energy keeps transforming, shifting from body to body until we learn what we need to learn.The great school, as the Bhagavad Gita says.

So, in the end, it is death that teaches us everything: First, to value life. To give it meaning, importance, because, ultimately, it will end, and it could be soon. Because we could die tomorrow, because the people we love could die tomorrow, and because all those projects that consume us, that we meticulously and methodically plan, could end before we complete them, robbing us of the present, the day-to-day, which, in the end, is the only thing we truly have.

"Life is what happens while we are busy making other plans," said Lennon.

And then, right there, when we want to cling to the present, to the body, to pleasure, to the now as if there were no tomorrow, to the "only thing we have"; when we want to mourn everyone who leaves or everything that could not be, death comes once again to remind us that we are not just a body, that we are not just today, that it is not just this... That there is more. That in reality, we are a soul, incarnating and reincarnating countless times, with more possibilities than the ones we have in this life—in fact, with infinite possibilities. Because that soul is eternal, because it is a GREAT journey, because real life does not end here. It continues until we graduate from the School of Learning...

Death shows us the door to the infinite, the portal of forgiveness and second chances.

So, death also gives us hope."It didn’t happen now, but maybe in another life..."

Both Hinduism and Buddhism—with their subtle differences on this matter—arrive at the same conclusion. Reincarnation. Multiple lives. The Wheel of Samsara. It makes me feel much better than thinking that we die and everything ends. It gives me more hope.

______________________

Yesterday, my cat passed away. A cat that was not just a cat, he was my companion, my family, and the feeling of home. He was my father and his memories. Happy moments and also the sorrows we went through together when the old man left. We were two children, so when he left, my brother was gone too.

I couldn’t say goodbye to him or see him leave this world, and that made it even harder. I was thousands of kilometers and several oceans away from him. But that day, I went to the mountains, cried a lot, and on a full moon night, I let him go in peace, along with my dad.

"Don’t hold him back," an Indian friend told me while I cried all over the town of Dharamkot. "You are in India! Here, we celebrate death! His soul has evolved, he has moved on to a better plane to keep learning. It’s the best thing that could have happened to him, say goodbye with joy. You should be happy for him, his soul has advanced."

And yes, he was right… but we are always thinking about ourselves, that we don’t just cry for them but for our own selfishness of letting them go without us, for the pain of separation.

It was nighttime. I went up to the rooftop, picked up a guitar, and sang to the sky, trying to make it feel as much like a celebration as possible. Now I see him in every animal, in every little beetle I rescue from the dampness of the bathroom, in every giant spider I save from my room in the forest with my own hands. Now I can see my cat everywhere, in every little creature that comes close to me…

In the end, it’s true, energy doesn’t end, it just transforms ♡

For Buddhism, reincarnation is infinite until we achieve liberation, the liberation from suffering, which is that wheel of life. However, what is not infinite is the possibility of reincarnating as human beings. Our karma determines our reincarnation, right? But what we often ignore, due to a lack of knowledge about Buddhist concepts, is that among the six different types of existence (1), reincarnating into a human body is truly an opportunity, a privilege, and a treasure.

The preciousness of this human life that we take for granted might not have existed, and it might not come to be again. According to Buddhism, if we now have a human life, it is because we have accumulated enough merit in our past life to reincarnate in this way. But this is not as common as we might think. It means that we have acted according to pure ethics, which allowed us to have this body, and that is not an easy thing, it actually required great effort. So, this talent is truly something to make the most of.

From the same perspective, this human existence might not be the same in the next reincarnation if in this life we do not honor it again sufficiently, with the greatest wisdom we can develop. Living with full awareness and compassion, cultivating the qualities that bring us closer to the liberation from suffering, avoiding those that create more of it, and trying to benefit all beings in the process, with joy and love.

For that, we must first understand and study how suffering is generated—the cornerstone of Buddhism—but I believe that understanding this is the first step in valuing human life as a special gift. It gives us a different perspective and also a beautiful responsibility: we are very precious beings who, unlike others, have the possibility to practice the dharma, the actions to develop our consciousness for our own good and that of all beings. We have the time and the freedom to do it, so it would truly be a shame to waste it and live as if we were animals when we have all the conditions to make our existence much more than that.

Thinking about this truly feels like holding a small cup of hot chocolate in my hands. We have a responsibility to uphold, with love, for ourselves and for others, and perhaps that is the most important and most peaceful motivation I have found in the past few months here in Dharamsala, India. And more than a demand, it feels like a blessing.

From this Buddhist town where the Dalai Lama lives, I wish that this blessing may reach you all.

"Today I am fortunate to have woken up. I am alive. I have the precious gift of human life. I am not going to waste it. I am going to use all my energies to develop myself, to expand my heart towards others,to achieve my enlightenment for the benefit of all beings. I will have kind thoughts towards others. I will not get angry or think badly of others. I will benefit others as much as I can."

Morning prayer of the Dalai Lama.

Om Mani Padme Hum ❦

(1) The six types of beings one can reincarnate into, according to Buddhist tradition, are:Gods, Demigods, Humans, Animals, Hungry Ghosts, and Hell Beings. And let the classifications not deceive us, because, contrary to what one might think, according to Buddhists, humans are the ones with the best opportunities to achieve enlightenment. Yes, even more than the gods.

Why?

Because our existence, unlike theirs, is marked by both suffering and happiness, which allows us to develop a different kind of wisdom, one based on practice and the learning that comes from our own lives. And yes, as we have personally imagined countless times, and as we have observed in the lives of so many inspiring people, it is suffering that most often drives the search for spirituality. So do not be discouraged, suffering is also a very necessary part of the path to liberation.

Namasté. ↩︎