For most people death seems to be the greatest evil. It's better not to think or talk about it. The reality of our latest hour is stuffed away deep down in our unconsciousness, but now and then like a smouldering volcano it still erupts its fears on us. Sometimes in our sleep or during the day the evil thought strikes our consciousness and we realise that all our days are numbered and that there will be an irreversible end to all our doings. One day all our thinking and doing will prove to be absolutely futile, a lot of empty words and deeds used to escape the reality of our one dying hour. This thought makes us sad and desperate and would make us depressed and paralysed if we would allow it to cross our minds daily. In the life of our soul death seems to be the greatest repression.

But look at us! How unconscious we are as we walk the street, going to work or visiting a friend! Like somnambulists we think to be handling real things, though we merely grope around in the dark. We seem to be totally forgetful about death. And yet, death is our only certainty, our only reality. Only death can't be taken away from us.

To really understand death we have to go through it and meet it personally. A mere theoretical knowledge of death wont do. Merely thinking about death still keeps alive the mechanism of repression in our consciousness. We have to experience death in order to see clearly the fact that it's the only ever lasting reality in our lives. That's the reason the thought of death seizes on us so anxiously, when we ourselves have nearly escaped death or when we have lost a dear one. The deep sorrow we feel makes us aware of our own fragility. Death is as real as life itself.

But if we seize to this occasion with full awareness, then death can offer us something more than despair, sadness and depression. If we can face death with braveness and dare to let it grab our emotions, then the sadness and despair which accompanies the loss has also the potential to totally transform us. Then death will be an experience of new life emerging. For death and birth are one. We will be born anew psychologically. We will obtain a totally new view of life. After the experience of death our life will be more meaningful and more profound.

If we meditate on death and don't run away from it in fear, the experience of death can be a tremendous source of happiness and knowledge. For life can become very light and peaceful, if we let the mourning and grief do its work and pass away naturally, with no resistance. The man or the woman who has totally and in full awareness completed a mourning period, be it about his or her own impending death, or about the loss of a dear one, will have some experience of this effect. After the experience of death one may live more from day to day. One savours more each moment in life spent in love and friendship. Now one knows that now is the moment to be happy for there certainly will come a time that life is no more. In the face of death all worries about yesterday or tomorrow melt away like snow in springtime. Death takes away all our miseries, not only our personal death but also the death that is deeply experienced in our souls.

So death can be a wonderful teacher to us all. And this teacher tells us: 'now, at this very moment, I can release you from all your miseries. You don't need to commit suicide. You don't need to die in the flesh in order to get rid of your burden. But you have to become friends with me. You have to come to terms with me, man, because I'm the only everlasting reality in your life. Don't be afraid of me. I'm completely natural. And how can something that is natural be an evil? Is life evil? Are the trees, the birds, the rocks and the stars in the sky evil? I'm as natural as they are.'

Death means an end, but it also means a beginning. For everything in life comes in pairs. There is no end without some beginning. Death is the end of all illusions, but for someone with a deep awareness it also is the beginning of a new life. All the religions in the world had some profound intuition of this new beginning after death. And you may or you may not believe in life after death or in the reincarnation of deceased souls. But you can observe the working of death in this life and everyone with understanding will see that death offers us in the here and now a new beginning.

In meditation we can experience death with the highest awareness. That's the reason some schools of mysticism have called meditation a preparation in dying. In Tibetan Buddhism meditation is used as a psychological tool to heighten our awareness and become so utterly aware that at the moment of death our soul never loses its awareness of what is going on. If the soul is properly trained in seeing the ultimate, it will never lose the bliss of the dharmakaya light, which the soul apprehends shortly after the decease. And it will not have to enter the realms of lower forms of consciousness. For in meditation it had already died of all illusions and become acquainted with the post-mortem reality.

In Greek mythology sleep and death are brothers. But the same can be said of meditation and death. In meditation also a kind of death takes place, but it's the death of the old man, before the rise of the new one. During a long period we experience in meditation a kind of slow death. This is not always an easy period for the soul. But the caterpillar needs to die first in order to transform into a beautiful butterfly. All the old images and perceptions about the self slowly blur and eventually fade away and die. Old neuroses and fears die too. A new integrated individual is being born. Death results into something very beautiful and blissful.

Many people who have came back from the threshold of death have spoken about the luminous light they saw just on the verge of dying. In my opinion they witnessed something of the great liberation that will happen to our soul when we die. It's the great experience of the Self that now, at the moment of death, shines out to the soul in its full glory. Now, not hampered by the imperfections of the body and the mind, the soul is able to see its blissful Source in all its beauty. When the soul is not accustomed to this dazzling light, it will shrink back and recoil. For the Self shines out so majestically that it needs a very trained and educated soul to be able to bear all this sublimity. In mythology and fiction this experience is described in the image of the mortal who covers his eyes at his seeing an angel or a god appearing in front of him. It's such a blissful and dazzling light that only few can bear it. These experiences all witness the fact that there will be a moment of liberation, of enlightenment at the moment of our dying. If we can die without fear of death and with a total let go and with no resistance, then this enlightenment will be very natural.

But if we have trained ourselves in meditation, we will not recoil at the sight of this sublime light. We will greet it and say with humility and gratefulness: 'Yes, I recognise you. You're the Beauty without form, that I've strived my whole life to see and to meet. And now finally we have merged back into One. I was acquainted with you. I have known you all along. You were the source of my happiness. And now I behold you in your true splendour.'

So death is our greatest teacher. We don't need to be afraid of death. We only have to train ourselves in letting go of our lesser self. Then death will be the culmination of this training. The Buddhists believe that the person who has sufficiently trained himself in this life, will never have to lose the sight of the Dharmakaya light anymore. He will always remain in everlasting blissfulness and will not need to come to rebirth anymore.

But if we don't believe this, there is always another proof that death is a great boon to us all. And I invite everyone to see it out for himself. Be brave enough to die of all your old opinions. Be brave enough to die of everything you identify yourself with. Let go of everything you cling to and desperately adhere to, including even your notions about God and afterlife itself. Remain for ever open with a spirit of not-knowing. Let it all die in you. And slowly you will begin to see the Dharmakaya light in full awareness. Than you will have some foresight in this life of all the splendid things you'll going to see when you die. Let now death be your greatest teacher.

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