Reasoning with Ourselves about Death

2015-01-04

Probably the most obvious place where we need to reason with ourselves is about death in general, and our own death in particular. In Beelzebub’s Tales, Gurdjieff says that in order to counteract the consequences of the malevolent organ kundabuffer, a new organ needs to be implanted in man that would constantly remind him of his own death and the death of everyone around him.

We can intentionally implant something very much like this organ in ourselves simply through reasoning. I say ‘simply’ because it is simple, but that’s not the same thing as saying it’s easy.

As it happens I had to personally face this last year before undergoing major surgery. I had a specific date for the surgery, and I was also given specific odds for what percentage of people die from this procedure. The odds were not high, roughly 1 to 3%, but those odds weren’t negligible either. Still it didn’t really sink in that I might actually die until I started giving my oldest daughter step by step instructions as to what needed to happen if I didn’t make it. It was those step by step instructions, that ‘reasoning’ if you will, that finally brought it home to me that I could very well die.

I didn’t die, but I was changed by the experience. And I was reminded of a clear instruction given to me long ago by one of my teachers to “Take death as your advisor.” Lately, through an extended process of reasoning brought on by a combination of the aforementioned medical conditions, experiencing the body getting older, and an expanded present moment, I’ve finally been able to listen to his injunction.

So my heartfelt recommendation to you, the reader, is… don’t wait for death to arrive unexpectedly. Through reasoning, put out the welcome mat each and every day.