"...he's always ready to die. Doesn't matter what. Always ready to die means: he is not ready to DIE, but he doesn't mind dying anytime."
This is a helpful distinction. I don't fear death, actually see it more accurately as passing on, and yet I haven't understood the distinction before of being willing to die, and at the same time not being ready to die. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Rick Archer" <rick@...> wrote: > > The different experience of dying by the ignorant and the enlightened. > > Maharishi: > > > When an ordinary man leaves his body it's a very great pain. When a realized > man leaves the body it's the experience of greatest happiness-bliss. Why? > Because the state of enlightenment comes by many times becoming unaware of > the body. Metabolic rate comes to nil. Million times the metabolic state has > come to nil. And in that state what we had experienced? Bliss > consciousness-during meditation. Because the state of enlightenment is the > result of millions of times getting to that time of pure awareness, > transcendental, that means physically the body comes to that restfulness, > comes to that restfulness, comes to that restfulness. ..... > > During meditation the mind becomes finer and finer and finer, and then > disassociates itself with the body. > Prana also-that is breath- becomes finer and finer and finer and finer, and > then eventually in the transcendental consciousness, disassociates itself > with the body. > So, senses: based on the finer aspect of the senses start function finer, > finer, finer, finest aspect of the senses start functioning. And then the > senses remain behind, the area of the senses remains behind and they are no > more in the transcendental awareness. > > What is happening during that: the prana is disassociating itself from the > body, and the mind disassociates itself from the body, senses disassociating > themselves from the body. All this disassociation of the subtle body, or the > inner man, has been a habit. And the experience has been: when all these > disassociate from the body, then bliss consciousness is the direct > experience. And therefore, as long as the machinery is functioning with the > disassociation of these subtle aspects, the experience is that of pure > consciousness or bliss consciousness. So the last experience that the body > can give will be of bliss consciousness when the subtle body starts > disassociating itself and drops off. This is the time of death. So the death > of an enlightened man is just the same phenomenon of transcending and gaining > transcendental consciousness. > > Whereas in the case of others who have not experienced the inner man's > disassociation from the body-who have never experienced that-then it is a > very terrible thing for the eyesight to disassociate itself from the eyes. > It's a very terrible thing for the sense of touch to disassociate itself from > the hands. Like that. Very terrible experience of pain. Very great. For the > sense of hearing to disassociate itself from the ears, from the whole > machinery. > > You can imagine how a man cries if his house is not insured [laughter]. If he > is not hooked to safety, not insured then if the house begins to fall and > burns away, he cries out and sees that oh, what beautiful ceiling I made, > with such great labor and such great love and this and this, and now it is > falling off and falling off and falling off. Everything that he built so > dearly and with such great love and joy and labor, all that, is falling off. > He starts crying at the fall of everything. Such a great pain at the time of > death-for someone who has not known how to disassociate himself from his > body. > > And in TM, every time we get disassociated from the body, at that time the > experience is bliss consciousness. Great experience! It's like someone whose > insurance is much greater than the value of the house [laughter]. When it > begins to burn, he puts a little more petrol there [laughter]. He enjoys > that. Because it is hooked to safety. So it's no loss. > > So, the experience of death of an enlightened man is the same experience of > transcending when we meditate. So that is bliss to the enlightened and the > greatest suffering to the ignorant. This is the difference. And that's > why-he's always ready to die. Doesn't matter what. Always ready to die means: > he is not ready to DIE, but he doesn't mind dying anytime. > > --- H.H. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Squaw Valley, 1968 >
