Awareness and Death

Life wanders along many known and unknown paths, full of surprises, trials and tribulations, joy and sadness. However, no matter how mundane, sorrowful, rewarding or spectacular, each life arrives at the same destination: at death’s door, or as Hamlet so eloquently put it, facing ‘the undiscovered country’. We see our energy diminish, our body betray us in little and big ways; we realize the completion of life tasks, and the limitations of our personal efforts. As our life progresses we may find ourselves turning more and more towards that part of ourselves that seems to endure and remains unaffected by our personal successes and failures. The mystery of life surrounds us, but becomes infinitely more compelling as we face the final unknown of the ending of our body and personal identity. This gets our attention! What happens to us after the body dies no one knows, though we hope for many things.

I have been present at many individuals’ deaths, but one I recall truly demonstrates there appears to literally be a ‘light’ of awareness in each of us. An elderly lady lay on her deathbed riddled with cancer, waiting on her son to arrive from a long distance. Finally her son arrived, and he bent over her, calling out to his mother to acknowledge him. As I looked on (right over her face) I observed a tiny light grow in her eyes, until they assumed a brightness; her face reanimating. It was literally as though someone had turned up the dimmer switch on a lightbulb. She finally saw him, smiling faintly with love and affection. Her son conveyed his love for her, which she received graciously and warmly. She smiled once again, then the dimmer switch in her eyes got turned down, the light in her eyes faded again into nothing, and her features returned to lifelessness. She died a short while later, but she vividly showed me her inner light.

One of the first lessons I learned from experiences such as the above-mentioned old woman concerns the presence of awareness. This ‘light’ of awareness is with us during the course of our life, as everpresent as our heartbeat or breath. Many traditions assert that increasing your knowledge and experience of awareness brings with it a sense of wholeness and well-being. We can choose to spend some time discovering whether or not this has any truth to it (there are a lot of practices designed for this), then decide for ourselves its’ place in our lives. Additionally, reminding ourselves about the transitory nature of our lives helps keeps things in perspective; we can participate and enjoy the present moment more fully when we keep this in mind. Increased awareness and remembering the message of death can give us more balance and wellness in our lives when we have contact with them.