“How can anyone feel so important when we know that death is stalking us?
“…The thing to do when you are impatient is turn to your left and ask advice from your death. An immense amount of pettiness is dropped if your death makes a gesture to you, or if you catch a glimpse of it, or if you just have the feeling that your companion is there watching you.
“Death is a wise adviser that we have… One…has to ask death’s advice and drop the cursed pettiness that belongs to men that live their lives as if death will never tap them!
“If you do not think of your death, all your life will be just personal chaos!
“Life for a warrior is an exercise in strategy.
“Without the awareness of death everything is ordinary, trivial. It is only because death is stalking us that the world is an unfathomable mystery.
“You have little time and no time to waste. A wonderful state! The best of us always comes out when we are against the wall, when we feel the sword dangling overhead. …I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
– don Juan Mattus (via Carlos Castaneda)
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Inner Life Exercise
Never give value to suffering. Millions do which is why their pains persist. Agony is a false life which they foolishly value over true and peaceful life. For example, people love to fight. The love of pain separates you from God, for God has nothing to do with anguish. Never listen to suffering when it tells you it is good and necessary. It is deceiving you. Listen to Truth. This is an example of a strong spiritual fact which most people don’t want to hear. Want out? Hear it.
– Vernon Howard 50 Ways to Get Help from God
The acknowledgement of our looming death keeps us honest and with a right sense of humility. How important are our quarrels and sense of importance when we are reminded of that certain death which ultimately prevails over our earthly lives? A great reminder of putting First things first!!
When we are asleep everything moves so quickly, like a blur. After reading this post my world stopped for a second and I became very sensitive to my surroundings, my inner state of feelings, and really my whole life. It is a gift to be reminded that our time here is very temporary and it’s possible to be present to every second of our life.
I always think I have time, and forget how short life is. This is a sobering reminder that we better get what we need done in this life, for we never know when it will be too late.