Cleary — A Once-in-a-Lifetime Event

If you fight death,

refusing to consider an illness fatal,

delighting when someone minimizes your illness

and hating when someone says it is serious,

fussing with doctors,

making impossible prayers and vows,

thinking in a confused manner,

making no final statement

even though your illness gradually worsens,

this is like the death of a dog or cat.

To spoil your one and only last hour like this

is a slovenly way to die,

resulting from failure to keep death in mind at all times.

Hating to hear when someone dies,

feeling that you will be in this world forever,

being deeply desirous and greedy for life—

if you go onto a battlefield with such a cowardly attitude,

there is no way you can die a splendid death

in the cause of loyalty and duty.

This is why those who cultivate warriorship

refer even to dying in bed of sickness

as the“once-in-a-lifetime major event.”

Thomas Cleary

Code of the Samurai