Edward’s Diary Entry 113: Self-Awareness Diagrams - 4

Above S-A 3: Just for the record, and only conjecturally, we could go one step further and give a rough outline of the higher state of consciousness we assume to be S-A 4 and 5. This is what mystics and masters and saints may experience, when the individual “self” has been transcended, true individuality has been achieved (“I AM”) and the lower body and mind have been re-ordered and arranged for life on this planet. Thoughts are under control and the thinking process is used when necessary. Feelings and emotions are generated as required. The body has been aligned as far as possible with the cosmos and all functions are known, understood and allowed to perform their activities as required. Unknown bodily urges and subconscious desires have been eliminated, as the mind has been purified and stands above all this.

The fictitious self or ego has been annihilated and sacrificed to the higher self. Awareness has been expanded to be all-inclusive and all-embracing. The five bodies of the yogis have been aligned with the Universe and the Source of All has been seen, experienced and understood. Liberation from all earthly ties has been achieved and existence is by choice and design, not by accident or compulsion, although since the Universe is dramatic, still anything may happen, but it won’t matter anymore, because Truth, God, the Source or the Creator – whatever it may be called – has been seen. There is no more question as to this Source. The question mark has been replaced by the sign of Infinity. The box of the body is open to the left towards the cosmos. And all is perfect, as it was intended to be. Man has been liberated from earthly existence but still performs his duties while alive. Death has been conquered.

Edward’s Diary Entry 112: Self-Awareness Diagrams - 3

Self-Awareness 3+: Now if all goes well and we continue to work on our minds and seek its source, we come to a possibility as shown in the S-A 3+ diagram below.  

Here, there is much more coherence in the mind, from the basic urges and impulses at 0, through bodily desires and urges at 1, feelings, emotions and sentiments at 2, and thoughts and the thinking process at 3. Self-Awareness is not separated and difficult to access in the mind any more, being shown in bold and connected with a strong bracket that focuses on each thought, feeling, sensation and impulse.  The mind has been put in better order, and the subject in question  is actively working on expanding his or her consciousness or awareness to all aspects of life within and without.

This kind of work is still very much physical and mental, and has nothing to do with anything spiritual. It involves using the initial separation in the mind between Awareness (“I”) and things experienced (“me”). Attention to breathing and bodily processes. Attention to the operations of the mind and the detection of conditioned responses and reactions. Support devices include the stilling of bodily functions, walking and watching the mind, sitting and watching the mind (meditation, contemplation, repetition of questions or mantras, various simple yogic practises such as listening to chants, cleansing the elements, cleansing the nadis, practising Vichara, concentrating on the Virtues, etc.).

Our analogy in modern-day terms would be to describe our body as the hardware in a workstation – the PC, screens, peripherals and work chair. The content of our minds is the software or programming in the computer. And our Self-Awareness is when somebody actually sits down in that comfortable work chair and uses the equipment for a useful job! Our problem is that when no one is sitting there, the programmes run in self-operation mode, as if we were intelligent (we are!), but we are absent and doing something else! We need to sit down at the workstation and actually do some work for all this to make sense. 

During daily life and at special times, perhaps, there is Attention to the wanderings of the mind and the exercise of control over such wanderings: for every un-wanted thought, a questioning thought is used to revert the thought-flow back to the Source of the mind, as we want to expand our Self-Awareness back along the crooked line to the question mark. A thought will come, it is dismissed with a question as to the origin of such a thought. A feeling wells up, it is noted in the mind by applying S-A: is the feeling the product of a beneficial thought or a negative or useless thought? If beneficial, the feeling is good; if not the feeling is bad. An urge or impulse arises: it is questioned and put in order. 

And there's more in the pipeline, stay tuned....

Edward’s Diary Entry 111: Self-Awareness Diagrams - 2

Continuing from the last entry, let’s look at the Observer or Witness state of consciousness, Self-Awareness 2+ or 3:

If conditioning is not too strong and there is an underlying urge for self-discovery, we can see a new state of awareness arising. This may be because of an inherent, deeply-felt experience of separateness from the Universe, or produced by rejection of a mediocre life, or by traumas or disease or frustrations finally forcing the person to question and analyse his or her life.

What happens is that there is an incipient realisation that neither the body nor the mind itself is really all there is to “me”, and an occasional group of “I-sensations” stand out from the rest and start to position themselves as the Observer, Witness or Watcher of the actions of the mind.

We can represent this state using the following diagram of Self-Awareness 2+ or 3:

With study and knowledge, and perhaps outside support from sensible people, our bodily urges are distinguished, our feelings and emotions are analysed and found to be produced by our own wrong thinking, and our thoughts begin to be analysed and the basic distinctions are made. Our “I-sensation” often sees how thoughts come, feelings well up from thoughts, and bodily urges and desires are produced. We watch these and struggle to “be aware” of them, and the initial separation in the mind-stuff is made and a reordering is effected, if we are lucky! 

In the diagram above, Self-Awareness is still in a box of its own, on the left-hand side, meaning it is not always accessible or available (as when we are “lost” in the automatic flow of thoughts or feelings…) and in parenthesis, meaning it is not a permanent tool we can use at all times. It is also lower down in the box, as it is not necessarily our priority at all times, because it is difficult to re-train the mind and “be aware” of every moment – it takes energy to do this, of which we do not have enough.

Alone or connected?

In both cases, above in S-A 2+ and in the original S-A 1 covered in the last Diary Entry, the “mind box” has a crooked line and a question mark to the left. 

This is an important part of the picture, although it is a question, because most psychological or mental diagrams are shown as “self-contained”, or individual units supposedly corresponding to a human being’s mind. This cannot correspond to Reality, because the mind can only function if it has a source of power, and this source of power is not simply derived from the body’s nutrition, but comes from the “unknown source” behind or within the mind – which is basically what all religions point to, and yogic science purports to be true.

If not, then no movement from the “physical” to the “spiritual” is possible, and therefore Life only has meaning insofar as society provides it, which is an absurd proposition and against all reason and logic.

We are conjecturing that since there is a Universe to be known, we are already physically and mentally (and spiritually) connected to it, but we do not realise this – our awareness is not high enough or strong enough to perceive or "realise" this connection. But the connection does exist despite our ignorance of it. It is called LIFE, and this is what fuels our machine from the inside. No Life or source of power? No Existence, and hence no Awareness! The inner fuelling of the mind comes from beyond our individual consciousness and seems to drive us forward or inward to seek for this source.

More coming soon...

Edward’s Diary Entry 110: Self-Awareness Diagrams - 1

Let’s remember that we have classified Self-Awareness into 5 states on this blog, from 0 to 5:

“S-A 0” – Deep sleep, where our normal “awareness” is zero.

“S-A 1” – REM sleep, where our “awareness” is of dreams and dreaming.

“S-A 2” – Normal “waking state” of conditioned man and woman, where “awareness” is at a minimum and often only comes when provoked from outside, when we are told something and become a little more “aware” or cognizant at that moment.

“S-A 3” – The “Observed waking state” in which we have already distinguished and ordered the components of mind into their appropriate places: we are often “aware” of our body’s productions, the appearance of sensations, the appearance of feelings, and the occurrence of thoughts in our minds, but there is an Observer or Watcher of these who stands slightly apart from them and evaluates them before reacting according to conditioning.

“S-A 4” – Flashes of a conjectured (unknown as yet) incipient “Cosmic awareness state” in which individual consciousness expands to embrace all life and all creation, and the individual “bubble of Self” dissolves, meaning that the higher faculties or regions are accessed by what we might call the “soul” and there is direct perception of Truth… This may be enlightenment, liberation, mukti, etc.

“S-A 5” – This is when S-A 4 or Enlightenment becomes permanent.

We don’t need diagrams of S-A 0 and S-A 1 because we are all familiar with these lower states of consciousness.

We do need a diagram for S-A 2, however, because this is the “normal waking state” called going with the flow, or the societal junk-heap, or the philosopher’s “unexamined life”, because everything in the mind is all higgledy-piggledy, a result of dubious upbringing, education, injunctions, belief systems and falsely “thinking that one knows”:

In this state, there is no coherence in the mind, as sensations, urges, impulses, thoughts and emotions simply pop up at any time when elicited from outside or within, and are automatically accepted as “I”. We have had our personalities formed by society, with a touch here and there of our own concoction, but this is Socrates' "unexamined life that is not worth living..."

More anon...

Edward’s Diary Entry 109: The 5 “bodies”, according to the yogis.

There are five “bodies”, referred to as bodies or sheaths, although three are physical, one transitional and the last non-physical.

The “physical”:

1. annamaya kosha, or the food body, so-called because it is just the accumulation of the food we have eaten. This body is, as we know, produced by reproduction of the species, is born, grows, deteriorates and eventually dies and is taken back into the planet, where it came from. It is represented by the element of Earth, and consecrated clay called bhumi is the earth-substance used in certain spiritual practises. The planet and our bodies are about 72% Water, so this element is also part of the physical body.

2. manomaya kosha, or the mental body, so-called because it is just the accumulation of impressions we have taken in. This highly receptive force-field gathers impressions from the 5 physical sense organs, interprets them, stores memories, and produces reactions (thoughts, emotions, ideas, imagination…). It is generally conditioned and lives in disarray, disharmony, enjoying little or no control from any higher faculty. What happens to this at the death of the physical body, we do not know. But we can conjecture that it eventually disintegrates and is non-individually recycled, as it has no consistency or substance of its own. Air is the element that is connected with the mental body, and this is why breathing exercises are important for the control of the mind.

3. pranamaya kosha, or energy body, the body that fuels the mental and food bodies, inferred as the source of their power. This is the body on which yogic practises are focused – as the correct alignment of the energy body is said to bring health and well-being, the natural state of man. Fire is the element related to the energy body. In our normal conditioned state, we do not normally have any direct awareness of this body.

The “transitional” (neither physical nor beyond):

4. vignanamaya kosha, or the etheric body. In our normal conditioned state, we do not normally have any direct awareness of this body, either. As a point of interest, according to Sadhguru, this is the body that can, if great mastery and intensity have been attained within oneself, be let loose and allowed to travel, as in so-called “astral travel”, with the clarification that most talk of astral travel today is simply imagination. Akash (Sanskrit: “sky”) is the element related to this body, rendered as “space”, ie, all that which holds us and everything in the world in place. It is universal and can also be called Akashic intelligence, not to be confused with its adoption in Western occultism and spiritualism in the late 19th century, which is just gobbledygook.

The “non-physical”:

5. anandamaya kosha, or the bliss body. We know nothing of this in any conditioned state of the mind. It may be Grace. It is that which is not, or “Shi-va” (no-thing).

So, “Self-Awareness”, or “I” can be partially conscious of some things happening in the Food Body – hunger, thirst, pain, relaxation, in calm meditation perhaps my heart beating and air coming in and out. But most of the time, we do not know what to do with our Food Bodies – not even the kind of food, drink, exercise and treatment it really requires to function properly. There is a lot to be learned and done in this respect.

Our “Self-Awareness”, or “I” can also be partially conscious of things happening in the Mental Body – as when we realise we have a thought, an emotion, an idea that pops up, a memory that is stirred up. But here the situation is even worse – we have too many ideas and concepts about what to do with the Food and Mental Body, and the Mental Body is simply accepted as “me”, when it is really just an accumulation of “them” and “society” if no rigorous self-questioning has led to a modicum of self-knowledge and understanding.

From here on, we have no clear idea of anything above these two, unless we have gone very, very deeply into our inner world. So there is a long way to go, my friend.

I have been studying this structure and will soon compare it with my original diagram of Self-Awareness and how it relates to the mind, in a forthcoming Diary Entry. Stay with me.

Edward’s Diary Entry 108: "108"

About magic numbers. It is said that a human being can actually work on 108 of the 114 major chakras. In Ayurveda, there are 108 pressure points in the body, where consciousness and flesh intersect to give life to the living being. The distance of Earth from the Sun is about 108 times the diameter of the Sun. The diameter of the moon and the distance between the earth and the moon is 108 times. There are usually 108 beads in Tibetan Buddhist malas or rosaries. All 108 of the names of Shiva are chanted daily during morning Shivapuja prayers. There are 108 words in this paragraph. AUM.

Am I happy with what I do in life?

“And he asked him, What is thy name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion: for we are many.” Mark 5:6-13. Yes, we are many. It is not some kind treatise on demons, pigs or unclean spirits. It’s a psychological fact from normal, present-day human life. It was true in 33 BC. It’s true today.

Look. It’s morning. You (1) wake up and roll over, thinking (2), “oh no, it’s Monday, I don’t want to get up. Just give me a few more minutes till the alarm rings again.” You (3) drift off and have a dream about something crazy happening to you (4). The alarm rings and wakes you (5) again. You (6) curse and say, “oh well, I guess I have to, or else I’ll (7) be late and there’s no one else to get that meeting prepared,” which is what you (8) have to do today, remember? The sunlight is coming through your window and you (9) think “oh, that’s nice, I (10) wish I could be at the beach again today like I (11) was yesterday.” It was nice, especially when you (12) saw those two good-looking girls in bikinis from afar, but, then that guy came back and kept them busy, and you (13) couldn’t make your approach, could you? Your feet come onto the floor, damn (14), where are those slippers? I (15) forgot them last night. Oh well, at least the bathrobe’s here. That stupid bathrobe tie has come out of its loop again! Jesus, I (16) hate Monday mornings! Everyone does, I (17) don’t blame them. It’s a bunch of crap. They should do away with Mondays; five Fridays a week would be better. What? The phone at this time? Didn’t I (18) mute it last night? No, it’s a Whats. I (19) should’ve muted that chat, shouldn’t I? Oh no, I’m (20) supposed to be there already, I (21) forgot we had an early-morning briefing session before the meeting. Why didn’t I (22) remember that? Sh*t! Now trembling, you (23) get to the bathroom, almost slipping at the door, and try to open the shower curtain, but it snags and you (24) curse again, turning on the hot water. Then lifting the toilet cover, you (25) remember  you (26) didn’t flush it last night. That’s funny, I (27) always flush it, guess I’m (28) getting lazy. Oh well, yawning and shaking your thing, you (29) finish, picturing your boss red with anger when she finds out how late you’re (30) going to be. If she could see me (31) now, shaking my dick, wouldn’t that be funny? I’d give her… (32). But wait, the water’s boiling hot already, time for a quick shower and out… Let’s forget the dressing part and the problem with the lift – “too many people in this building, I (33) should move! – Coffee downstairs, that’s the slowest waiter I’ve (34) ever seen, just when I’m (35) in a hurry, damn, and the coffee’s too hot as well. Give it a shot will ya?, what the heck, I (36) must have some chewing gum somewhere so they won’t notice the cognac and a few quick puffs, yeah, I (37) was going to quit, but can’t do it now, can I (38)...? Forget the motorcycle, let’s get a taxi, shit! Three already and all busy. This is ridiculous, I’ll (39) never get there. Why don’t I (40) find a different job? For Chrissakes…”

Just a brief span in the morning and there are already at least 40 “me’s” vying with each other for attention, all taking over the whole body and mind, making it tremble, shake, get tense, stressing it up, fuelling anxiety, all demanding their part in the show. Bitching, complaining, demanding, giving importance to me and mine. All day the “me’s” do this, and it’s a wonder the body and mind don’t go completely berserk. If you ask this Hipster “Where are you now?”, he would give you a funny look and think, “whaddya nuts?” He doesn’t have many moments of actually “being aware” of his thoughts and emotions; they just happen to him and are acted on. There’s no calm observer in the background applying will to a decision. There’s no plan. There’s just a compendium of movements-feelings-thoughts being elicited by occurrences and being played out as if on a stage. Everything’s going on front stage, and there’s no director in the house. There wasn’t even a dress rehearsal.

This is life compartmentalised into tiny sections. Every “me” battling against another. How can someone be happy like this? Or happy with what they do in life? The answer to the question “Are you happy with what you do in life?” can be very tough, or very easy. It depends on your mind-set, and your inner make-up. If something of permanent value has been found in daily life, there may be inner calm, peacefulness and happiness. If there are a just bundle of conflicting thoughts, emotions and behaviour patterns, there can be little happiness – it just comes and goes from outside depending on circumstances. And so life goes on, with a tendency to seek out more pleasures than pains in a losing battle, because in the end, when it comes time to say goodbye, the memory of past pleasure gives us nothing, and the pain of no more pleasure-hunting is the final notice that you’re life has been lived in vain.

“…and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the sea.”

Remember that Jesus was that “manner of man” that even the wind and the sea obeyed him (previous verse Mk 4:41), really meaning that he had conquered the elements of water, earth (and fire and air) within himself. So when the “two thousand” drowned in the sea, it was because the fragmented egoic structure had finally been dipped in the water of truth and had disintegrated. This is what we are urged to do: re-structure our conditioned mental makeup by mastering the elements within us, and finding peace inside once the swine have choked to death. 

Edward’s Diary Entry 107: Alienated on the Airplane

We are so petty. Nowadays, with airlines crisscrossing the planet with about 100,000 scheduled flights per day globally, even such a marvel cannot shake us poor humans out of our shells!

After all the hassle of the airport and security, we just strap ourselves into our seats and switch on the in-flight entertainment as soon as possible, even at window seats, happily enclosed in our safe and familiar human surroundings, although a little tightly packed.

How many of you look out of the window? How many dream in the clouds? I do. My face is often stuck to the plastic. I love the view. A look out of the window at take off still shows stick-like human figures around the airport, but in a few minutes all one can see is tiny human constructions and the marks of man over the natural terrain: roads, smokestacks, urban sprawl… A few more minutes and there’s hardly any signs left of individual man. Yes, it looks like the world is inhabited, but we don’t really know by whom – it could be by some alien species down there. Especially the kind of Hollywood alien that comes and conquers the planet, undernourishing humans, enslaving them, commanding their little lives and then sending them to the slaughterhouse or the killing fields in human-created wars for wealth and territory, stupid ideas and ideals.

What we do see is the vastness of Nature, with her mountains, greenery, rivers maybe, snow. And Earth clothed in her particular colours. And clouds, lots of clouds, and the huge expanses of sky. When we reach cruising speed, there is nothing left of the world below but a vast and indiscernible backdrop. Now is this not enough to put us humans in our place? What do we need to get our minds and our problems into perspective? Why can’t we use our air travel to open up our horizons, instead of just watching TV again?

A view from a plane at 25 thousand feet tells us that humans have disappeared. There is very little sign of human society. Nature is there, and within Nature we know there are humans and their structures. But we don’t see them. Their little bodies have disappeared, and their thoughts and emotions are all gone – no sign of them. There are only clouds and the bright blue sky and a shining sun. This should serve to make us humble and convinces us that our problems are really very small after all. So sit back and enjoy your flight through this world.

Edward’s Diary Entry 106: Limiting our View to the Social Perspective is Wrong

Immersed in our thoughts and emotions, fixated in our beliefs and opinions, our “normal” outlooks are exclusively human. These outlooks were created in childhood and youth, depending on place of birth, parents, social conditions, education, and degree of self-induced or maybe God-given “Self-Awareness”. The lower our Self-Awareness, the blinder we are to reality, and the more prone we are to unconscious reaction instead of attentive and effective action. Like blinkered horses, we see only what is in front of us – to plough along in a straight furrow marked out by human ingenuity, or like racehorses to win some kind of competition imposed on us,  or to follow a leader, a set of scriptures, a belief system, or just our own unbridled passions...

We know man has enslaved many animals and uses them for his own purposes. What we don’t realise is that man enslaves himself too. And the purpose is either unknown or unconscious. We operate as if we were separate, independent, isolated units or bubbles acting in opposition to an outside world whose only importance is – for some unknown human reason – that is should give us pleasure, wealth, food and drink in abundance, success, power or authority, and other human pursuits, with no questions asked. "It’s me against the universe, and I want all I can get…" That is a poor life philosophy, a wrong outlook, but it lies behind many so-called “normal” thought-patterns.

This is the social perspective of life – our mainstream human world where only humans count, and only certain humans, like political or religious leaders, newscasters, writers or psychiatrists – whoever we have invested with authority in our minds. The exception may be human beings directly involved with plants and animals, who take them into account, but mostly for production purposes only, even if “green thumbs” may love their flowers and breeders may very well “love” and care for their horses very well.

But on this blog we are interested in increasing “Self-Awareness” to such an extent that it explodes out into the world and becomes sensitive to all Life around us – from the tiny ants to the elephants, from a leaf on a bonsai to a giant sequoia, from a beggar in the street to the wisest of the Wise. Every time we hear an opinion from a man or woman, we have to question it and see whether it actually does include any larger aspect of Life. Is it only concerned with human pursuits? If so it its limited. Does it coincide with our observation of Nature? If not it is too limited. Does it account for relationships with the living soil, the plants and animals, people from other continents? If not, it is too exclusive. Is it an opinion someone has written about and we have just accepted as our own, without any analysis? If so, we need to rethink and analyse. What are the basic tenets or assumptions behind the opinion or idea? Can we simplify it and see what it really means? And many other questions.

If we don’t “unblinker” ourselves and reach out to the entire world, we are missing our life and all our chances for happiness in an increasingly globalised humankind. Can you embrace Nature? And the entire world?

Rainshower

Pearl drops and silver

falling on a tree-lined street

Rain curtain of joy

Edward’s Diary Entry 105: Just Keep Doing It

Whatever you’re doing to investigate the mind,  just keep doing it. Whatever increases Self-Awareness is good, whatever decreases it or prevents it, is bad. Life is simple. But many people find it much more simple to complicate things for themselves...

Take doing Bikram, or hot, yoga in the morning. For me, at my age, and having started only 6 months ago, it is a sweaty task, and requires concentration, attention to breathing, effort and then total relaxation in Savasana, the Corpse or Dead-Body Pose, to survive the process – especially the 1.5 hour class, where all postures are done twice. The 1-hour class is now viable, although legs and back have to loosen up quite a lot yet. It is an additional, and for the moment, a purely physical, workout for the body, with cooperation from the mind, which thankfully stays quite still. My eyes are short-sighted, so the mirror is blurry, and in certain postures I see myself as a dwarf or circus freak, a tiny midget with arms chopped off, standing there sightless. I tip over every now and then – my balance is not too great, but too many people fidget, huff and puff, move unnecessarily, drink when they shouldn’t, etc. And I hear that some are thinking a lot of the time – their minds are running over the day: what they’re planning to do, what happened yesterday, who called them last night, whether bills have been paid, when they can go shopping, what they plan to buy, and many others subjects that are totally irrelevant to breathing and compressing organs and simply getting in tune with one’s self and the universe. Yes, it is an unnecessary complication. Yoga is for union with “oneself”, not for reviewing the start of the day – that’s a different exercise, for a different time!

The solution is to use Savasana and relax completely. But to do this, we may need to initiate a definite concentration exercise for the mind at other times, even if it’s just 15 minutes a day. If the wild, roaming mind can be made to focus on one single thought for 15 minutes, then it can be allowed to wander all over the place afterwards, and it will treat us with greater respect when it comes to practising yoga. Intellectuals will say that humans have problems because they don’t think, or don’t think properly. Yogis maintain our problems stem from overthinking. So finding the mean, the right balance, is vitally important. To do this, you need to apply your degree of Self-Awareness, or mindfulness, to the perception process throughout the day. I find it convenient to have a daily plan and schedule and know what I am doing at any given time, sitting, walking, standing, working, enquiring within, or socialising.

Whatever it is, it just has to be continued. Find yourself some good exercises and just keep doing them.

Cave Series 12: Icy Roof

In the blackness, a patch of light appeared… It was not on the walls of the cave. It was on the roof. I looked up, and I saw an opening covered with ice, and I was looking at it from below, as if the cave were full of water. A bluish tinge faded to white, and I clearly saw it was a sheet of ice as viewed from below, and there was daylight up above. This picture, which I subsequently found, is very similar to the effect of this apparition in my cave. It only lasted a few seconds, and then I was back in darkness again. So maybe I do not have to break down the walls, or even find an entry point. The wintery roof may just melt with the coming of spring and then I will simply stick my head up out of the water and breathe new air again. Who knows? Time will tell. Meanwhile just keep sitting.

Edward’s Diary Entry 104: A Death in the Family

A death in the family should certainly teach something to the living. It’s no good just crying and getting upset. That neither helps the dead nor the living. It’s just acting out of pain with little Awareness. A death is a cessation of the activity of mind and body. The dead or dying person can sometimes be thankful for that: no more pain, no more mental suffering. But if the living, the family members and friends who remain behind, only indulge in emotions of pain and suffering, or become obsessed with inheritances and material things, what good has that life been to others, except to perpetuate the lower emotions and thoughts?

I saw in my mind’s eye a tomb, as if in a church, and on either side people were standing and arguing fiercely about what to do with the deceased’s possessions, how to organise the future, wrangling over a series of material objects. They were fighting, sad and angry. At times there was still laughter and a fond smile, but mostly it was squabble. Isn’t that a pity? Just underneath, the gentleman, now turned to ashes, was resting quietly and peacefully, and up above, his family members were bickering about this, that and the other. Some still wanted to say goodbye somehow, not having found the time to do so in life. Some of course were taken by surprise, whereas others knew and prepared for the day that came all too quickly.

We could remember the words of Marcus Aurelius, urging us to “conduct our funeral as a triumph”, but if that sounds too exaggerated, we can at least look at death as another exercise in behaving virtuously. There should be no fear or fright; no unpleasant speech or resentment; no impatience or indolence; no miserliness or lack of generosity; no abandonment of control over the senses; no self-centredness; no lack of interest in learning; no sloth, crookedness, violent thoughts and vengeance, no lying or cheating. There should be no anger and irritableness; no attachment to reward; no agitation, nervousness; no nagging and backbiting or criticising; no uncaring attitudes towards anyone or anything; no envy, greed or coveting; no cruelty or teasing; no evil actions; no fickleness or doubt; no laziness or weakness; no hard-heartedness; lack of control, lack of consideration for others, no jealously; no traces of hidden malice; no egotism, vanity and seeking praise and appreciation. How is this possible? By applying the Virtues to the mind-stuff, instead of their opposites.

When one brave and courageous man dies with dignity, the survivors must pay heed to the lesson: if one man can shed his body and mind in peace and tranquillity and even with a little disdain for methods intended to prolong life perhaps unnecessarily at a lower quality level than before, then the survivors should be capable, also, of shedding their negative thoughts, feelings and behaviours out of respect for such a one, or even for their own mental health. The dead who are brave teach us to be brave in life too, and curb the lower, unwanted behaviours of the human mind.

So live and learn, before it’s too late. And do what you have to do in life, not later.