Everyone thinks:"Death will eventually come, but I will not die today."

[vajrastorm]

Lamrim Day 10: Remembering Death.

THE DRAWBACKS OF NOT REMEMBERING DEATH - THE DRAWBACK OF REMEMBERING THE DHARMA BUT NOT PRACTICING IT

Je Tsongkhapa said:
 
  ' Everyone thinks, "Death will eventually come." Yet they keep the evil thought , "But I will not die today, I will not die today,"  right until they are on the point of dying. '

You grasp on the idea that you are not going to die, and think, "Oh, I could practice Dharma next year or the year after". You are forever procrastinating. You think about Dharma but do not practice it: you remain engrossed in thoughts such as , "I want this valuable object". Meanwhile your time is running out.
('Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand' by Pabongka Rinpoche,p.295)


When we procrastinate, thinking that we still have time to practice the Dharma in the future,we will continue to immerse ourselves in samsaric pursuits, and in satisfying our desires, attachments and wants. We will continue to pander to our eight worldly concerns. Then before we know it, death or some terrible illness overtakes us...

[Pema8]

Death will come - this is for sure.

If we prepare ourselves, we will be at peace. If we continue with our samsaric attachments, we will be very worried.

Best to practice Dharma all the way.

The drawbacks of not remembering death:

The drawback that you will not remember the Dharma
The drawback that you will remember the Dharma but not practice it.
The drawback that you will practice but not practice properly.
The drawback of not practicing seriously.
The drawback of acting vulgarly.
The drawback of having to die with regrets.

The advantages of remembering death:

The advantage of being most beneficial.
The advantage of being most powerful.
It is important at the beginning.
It is important at the meantime.
It is important at the end.
The advantage that you will die gladly and happily.


(From Lamrim, Chapter 10, Liberation at the Palm of your Hand

[RedLantern]

 By thinking about these, it makes us more concerned about dying and being reborn. This
will make us take an interest in getting some guides. We then take refuge in the Triple Gem as a guide
to help us through all this mess. The general guidance of the Triple Gem right off the bat is about
karma. These are the four principal topics in this initial level of motivation – death and the lower realms
to activate our interest in doing something, and taking refuge and observing karma to help us solve the
problem.  This will help you understand things better.

[yontenjamyang]

The point of remembering death is so that we do not waste time for the pursuit of samsaric things alone but spend all our time to practice virtue. Depending the the motivation scope of the person, Dharma practice can mean different thing. It is not practical for a parent and spouse example to give up everything and be a monk/nun for example. But yet this same parent/spouse can practice the Dharma according to the instructions of the Guru. This is another reason the Guru and devotion to the Guru is important.
Hence, the sequence of Guru Devotion is before remembering death with optimum human rebirth in between.

I am must say that while is utterly important to know that we can all die anytime, we cannot in practicality think that we will die today either. It should be taken that we should not waste this optimum life and that death is certain and we do not know when. Hence, do virtues everyday and do worry and fear death. Remember the Guru and keep your promises and samaya.

[dondrup]

Why is it that we are not afraid even though we know that death is certain and it will strike us at any moment? Our mind is very obscured due to past lives habituation, delusions and negative karma that we ignorantly perceive that we won't die today and we will only die later at old age. We thought we have a long life-span.  We are not convinced enough that death is just one breath away! Even at the last moment of our life when death finally occur, we are still caught up in the affairs of this life! 

It is only through repeated meditation on death and we realise this truth in our mind that we are mindful and aware of the urgency to take the essence of our precious human life. Time is running out. Do it now!

[sandra]

This is really fun topic to talk about it. Most of the people will think I am not going to die now, so definitely will die later, why not to have fun now. Whether we die now or later but we also need to die, so to have fun now is our priority. So the conclusion is still to have fun now. Unless we believe when we die is not the end but a new chapter of life, that will make the different of perception of life. To make people to believe that there will be a life after die is not so simple. Mostly people will choose to believe there will be no life after death. They will prefer to hold on something tangible at this moment rather to believe something can not be seen. This is samsaric view.

[MoMo]

By realizing that death is inevitable, there are only two type of migration awaiting us.
It is the lower migration that we fear to move us to do something to avoid it. Even through the study of sutra and words heard from great sages and one kind guru on the bane of general suffering of the three lower realms and even the upper realms rebirth.  Now that we had met with the holy Dharma, the rarer of the rare, one that contain the whole path from sutra to tantra distilled and extracted from the 84000 teachings of Lord Buddha. But how many had developed genuine renunciations?

For further contemplation, extracted from Jetsunma Tenzin Plamo :
Most people feel cozy enough in samsara. They do not really have the genuine aspiration to go beyond samsara; they just want samsara to be a little bit better. ……

The underlying motivation to go beyond samsara is very rare, even for people who go to Dharma centers.
There are many people who learn to meditate and so forth, but with the underlying motive that they hope to make themselves feel better.
And if it ends up making them feel worse, instead of realizing that this may be a good sign, they think there is something wrong with Dharma.
 
We are always looking to make ourselves comfortable in the prison house. We might think that if we get the cell wall painted a pretty shade of pale green, and put in a few pictures, it won’t be a prison any more.
~Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo.

[eyesoftara]

I would like to quote the "Liberation in the Palms of Your Hand" by Je Pabongkha Rinpoche.

THE DRAWBACK THAT YOU WILL NOT REMEMBER DHARMA

If you do not recollect death, you will think about only this life, get caught up in its many demands—food, clothes, and so on—and thus not practice Dharma. If you recollect death well, you will work hard to prepare for your next lives, just as a Khampa about to go on a journey would work only at preparing and packing. Your enormous craving for food, fashion, reputation, and so on, can be blamed on your not remembering impermanence. Every day that passes without your recalling impermanence is a day of your life wasted.

THE DRAWBACK THAT YOU WILL REMEMBER [THE DHARMA] BUT NOT PRACTICE IT

Je Tsongkapa said:
Everyone thinks, “Death will eventually come.” Yet they keep the evil thought, “But I will not die today, I will not die today,” right until they are on the point of dying.

So, the point is simple that we must start the practice immediately. Everybody we must at least practice Lojong, Lamrim and the 7 Limbs Prayers in any form.