To live like how I would like to die ... 2011

While I am struggling to figure out how best to live, I have a pretty clear picture of how I want to die - rather, how I want to be when I die. So, let me describe my view of the latter.

I would be in a state of ultimate liberation with a smile on my face about having led a purposeful life, having made a difference to the world I came into, and left a mark for others to remember/ emulate. Free from all forms of bondage - material and non-material, physical and emotional - and, consequently, free from all suffering! If there are people around me at that time, I would like them to be celebrating my life than mourning my imminent life transition. That would be a state of real bliss.

The question that begs an answer is why I should have to wait until the moment of reckoning to experience the best of my life. Asking myself this question, I realize that I have, in fact, painted my picture of good living in my depiction in the previous paragraph. Perhaps, I do know the answer - what a feeling!

The answer may be concealed in a practical implementation of Eckhard Tolle's phrase, "The Power of Now" - relishing the "now", as I am doing while typing this blog post at this very moment, with the hide-and-seek Sunday morning sun, or enjoying some delicacies (home made बटाटा वडा and Lemon-Coriander Soup and some sips of Zinfandel) to go with the thunderstorms last evening. Add to the recipe the important step of pushing away any thoughts of attachment. Then, you can enjoy Black Label without becoming an alcoholic, and relish the existence of the 1-litre bottle in the cabinet no less than a cold sip lingering on your tongue and going down your oesophagus.

The difficulty in implementing the above recipe seems to be that we are, in this world, "lifaholics" - a term that I have coined to represent an addiction to life. That makes ones attachments compulsive, and ones journey through life an involuntary passage rife with pain and suffering. The alternative is to be in charge - recognize your sphere of influence and be in acceptance of the world outside it - and live in acceptance than denial.

Wouldn't you want to join my club of good livers (pun intended) and other organs, including the mind?