From the perspective of being dead, supposing there really is a content to that perspective, being dead might be perfectly all right, if not better, and from that perspective maybe it is the living of life as a human being which will be judge utterly repugnant. Since we do not know what it is like to be dead -- if it is like anything at all -- we are not in a position to make judgments about what it is like, and cannot compare what it is like to be dead with what it is like to be alive.
~ from Learning the Tao: Chuang Tzu as Teacher, Chapter Ten ~
It is a cute idea to think of death as a great release - and that by some odd irony it may be so great and so blissful that we spend death fearing birth!
ReplyDeleteYet it is nothing more than an idea built from an idea of separation. So cute, funny like Chuang himself, but can it have reality?
I wish I had the wherewithal to respond this way every time someone said, "It beats the alternative," in response to some complaint about life. Silly people!
ReplyDeleteMy first impression when involved with some internal alchemy activity was, "We're learning how to be dead." I don't feel quite that way now, but this comment has some relevance to that.
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