Chögyam Trungpa — Death Is a Real Experience

Death is a very real experience.

Usually, we do not connect with a sense of reality.

If we have an accident—

or whatever happens in our lives—

we do not regard it as a real experience,

even though it may hurt us.

It is real to us

as far as pain and physical damages are concerned,

but still it’s not real for us

because we immediately look at it

in terms of how it could be otherwise.

There’s always the idea of first aid

or some other redeeming aspect of the situation.

If you are talking to a dying friend or relative,

you should transmit the idea

that death is a real experience,

rather than that it’s just a joke

and the person could get better.

Often people tell the dying person things like,

“Life is really a joke altogether.

The great saints say it’s not real.

Life is unreal.

What is death, anyway?”

When we try to take this kind of approach,

we become jumpy ourselves;

and that jumpiness

is what we end up communicating to the dying person.

We should help them to understand that death is real.

Chögyam Trungpa

Crazy Wisdom