The Buddhist nun Pema Chödron turned 80 on July 14th and published a video with an 8-minute message about the fear of death and the reality of impermanence, addressing everyone but especially the youngest - "in fact, the younger you are, the better to listen to this message, because you can prepare yourself throughout your life. As she prepares, she says that fears are gone, they are seen as fleeting moments and that life gains a more vibrant kind of appreciation, as if it were a "Van Gogh experience," in her own words. Quoting his master, the famous Tibetan Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche (1939-1987), Chödron emphasizes what he learned from him a long time ago, that every breath is a birth and a death, "and I remember that when I first heard this I felt a certain panic, because I think I understood. A feeling of "being without a huge floor."
And the main thing, she says, is to get used to that feeling of being groundless. "You realize it's just that fear like we felt before we parachuted, it's just a slap, and that's it. In time, she says, "you learn to relax all that time."
This reading is curious, because we really have many more "groundless" moments during life than the final death, which is just a moment (and if everything goes well, there will be some time to experience life). When training for these sensations during daily life, accepting the impermanence of all things, in crises, changes, difficulties, ease, etc., the same feeling of fear of any end and of any attachment passes through this practice of relaxation and understanding. "And the fear goes on, leaving only that sense that things are moving, that they are impermanent, that there is really nothing to hold on to, and this is a very precious experience, it is not at all abysmal, perhaps it is a half Van Gogh moment, seeing things with more vibration, observing all the very vivid and precious things, you appreciate details and appreciate other people very much.
So, at 80, she quietly states that there is nothing to fear in death. "Do you know when people are approaching death and making those reflections about the past? So this is happening to me, and the impression is that my life has passed like this (make a gesture by snapping your fingers), and it's gone," she says.
"When the appearances of this life dissolve
May I with calm and great happiness
release all attachment to this world,
like a son or a daughter returning home.
- Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche
Here's the video, in English, with available subtitles in Portuguese (which need to be activated in the commands at the base of the video, first in Settings and then on Translate).
Shared by dharmalog.com
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