Greetings on Vesak Day.
One of the most powerful aspect of Buddhism is its hard-nosed, pragmatic approach to death.
Similarly, Lee Kuan Yew's most recent thoughts on his own mortality seems to indicate a man poised to face the eventuality of his own demise.
Lee's final hurdle of his life - the conquest of the fear of death - may be his final and greatest achievement yet.
"All health ends in sickness, all youth ends in ageing, all life ends in assured death!
All worldly being begins with birth, is haunted by ageing, surprised by sickness, and struck down by death, often in a state of desperate panic and frantic fear...
As though huge mountains made of rock so vast that they reach up into the sky,
were to attack from every side, grinding and crunching beneath them all that lives.
So indeed Ageing and Death roll over all beings, whether gods, kings, warriors, priests, merchants, craftsmen, poor, or animals, crushing all beings, sparing none!
And neither armies, nor guards, nor medicines, nor spells, or riches, can even delay this by a single second!
Death should thus be remembered as the ruin of success by seeing it as the final and unavoidable wrecking of any life's success!"
[Vism I 232]
"There is an end to
everything and I want mine to come as quickly and painlessly as possible, not with me incapacitated, half in coma in bed and with a tube going into my nostrils and down to my stomach..
I wouldn't call myself an atheist. I neither deny nor accept that there is a God."
[Lee Kuan Yew]
https://sg.news.yahoo.com/singapores-lee-says-wants-quick-death-112100482.html
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A nine-point meditation on death and impermanence.
DEATH IS CERTAIN
1. There is no possible way to escape death. No-one ever has, not even Jesus, Buddha, etc. Of the current world population of over 5 billion people, almost none will be alive in 100 years time.
2. Life has a definite, inflexible limit and each moment brings us closer to the finality of this life. We are dying from the moment we are born.
3. Death comes in a moment and its time is unexpected. All that separates us from the next life is one breath.
THE TIME OF DEATH IS UNCERTAIN
4. The duration of our lifespan is uncertain. The young can die before the old, the healthy before the sick, etc.
5. There are many causes and circumstances that lead to death, but few that favour the sustenance of life.
Even things that sustain life can kill us, for example food, motor vehicles, property.
6. The weakness and fragility of one's physical body contribute to life's uncertainty.
THE ONLY THING THAT CAN HELP US AT THE TIME OF DEATH IS OUR MENTAL/SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT
7. Worldly possessions such as wealth, position, money can't help
8. Relatives and friends can neither prevent death nor go with us.
9. Even our own precious body is of no help to us. We have to leave it behind like a shell, an empty husk, an overcoat.
Martyn See
*Article first appeared on https://www.facebook.com/martynsee