It is completely normal to pursue the likes of financial security, status, career, professional and academic qualifications, legacy, beauty, physical and psychological competency, pleasure, and relationship goals, and in some cases, it’s necessary to do so for our survival.
However, from the perspective of certain contemplative traditions such as Buddhism, unless such endeavors are undertaken within a context of spiritual practice, they ultimately amount to nothing.
Without exception, things are born, they live, and they pass away. This applies as much to living entities such as plants, animals, and human beings as it does to large-scale geological and cosmic phenomena such as mountains, planets, and universes. The moment a given entity or living being manifests into existence, it begins a journey toward its inevitable dissolution.
Despite this truth of reality, people tend to ignore the inevitability of death or if they do acknowledge it, they do so only superficially. This is what the 14th-century Tibetan Buddhist teacher Tsong-Kha-Pa said about this behavioural tendency: "Everyone has the idea that death will come later, at the end. With each passing day, people think, 'I will not die today; I will not die today', clinging to this thought until the moment of death. If you are seduced by the hope that this body and life will last a long time, you will create strong attachments."
Tsong-Kha-Pa and many other contemplative experts from both within and outside of Buddhism have argued that the only thing we can take when we leave this world is whatever spiritual wisdom we may have accumulated. In this sense, spiritual wisdom refers to genuine spiritual insight and awakening rather than knowledge of spiritual matters per se.
My personal view is that levels of spiritual awareness are gradually decreasing for the average person living today, which means that if both Tsong-Kha-Pa and myself are correct, the overwhelming majority of people conclude their lives with zero spiritual capital. This is sad and reflects a wasted opportunity, which I’ve alluded to in a previous post where I asserted that we are currently in a spiritual crisis due to spiritual undernourishment at a population level.
Reaching the point of death without having spiritually prepared ourselves can result in a great deal of regret and fear. It can also trigger anger when a person has no choice but to be separated from the things they have become attached to.
One way to reduce the likelihood of this happening and deepen our understanding of death and dying is to practice mindfulness of death. This involves observing the present moment as it unfolds within and around us whilst focusing awareness on the transient nature of life, including that of our own existence.
When we see that the present moment is changing all the time and that nothing lasts forever, it can profoundly alter the way we relate to ourselves, other people, and life more generally. Some key benefits of keeping death in mind in this manner include:
References
Van Gordon, W, Shonin, E., Dunn, T., Sheffield, D., Garcia-Campayo, J., & Griffiths, M.D. (2018). Meditation-induced near-death experiences: A three-year perspective study. Mindfulness, 9, 1794–1806.
Hammer, K., & Van Gordon, W. (2024). Referring clients to Stoic writing practices: Exploring principles, techniques, and challenges. In A. Cantú, E. Maisel, & C. Ruby (Eds.), Practical Alternatives to the Psychiatric Model of Mental Illness: Beyond DSM and ICD Diagnosing (pp. 362–384). Ethics International Press.
Hammer, K., & Van Gordon, W. (2024). Comparing Buddhist, Stoic, and existential analytical frameworks to enrich Philosophy as a Way of Life: Towards a common factors approach. In A. Cantú, E. Maisel, & C. Ruby (Eds.), Theoretical Alternatives to the Psychiatric Model of Mental Disorder Labeling: Contemporary Frameworks, Taxonomies, and Models (pp. 504–525). Ethics International Press.
Hammer, K., & Van Gordon, W. (2023). Joyful Stoic death writing: An interpretative phenomenological analysis of newcomers contemplating death in an online group. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, Advance Online Edition, Doi: 10.1177/00221678231178051
Shonin, E. & Van Gordon, W. (2014). Mindfulness of death. Mindfulness, 5, 464-466.
For further reading, a paper entitled "Mindfulness of Death" that I co-wrote with Dr Edo Shonin on this topic back in 2014 might be of interest. Free access here: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12671-014-0290-6