finishing tape, and musicians cannot shape their performance without a final chord. Death is not something to be afraid of; death need not be painful.
One thing we can do to reduce the fear of death is to make it an adviser to tell us what is the most important thing for us to do in the present. Here is one skill you can use that will make the idea of death enrich your life right now.
The next skill is best done in a quiet place in a relaxed frame of mind.
84
COMMON FEARS THAT HOLD US HOSTAGE
Skill for freedom
Death as an adviser
Imagine yourself in the far future, looking back on your life now.
What do you want to have accomplished by this point?
What important goals do you have that remain dreams?
What would it feel like to have accomplished these things?
Is there anything you need to do now to prepare for the time when you die and are no longer here to take care of people and do the things you enjoy doing?
What advice can you give to the you now, from this place in the far future?
How important are the worries of your present self from this distant point of view?
What is the most important thing that you need to do now?
Come back to the present moment, and reflect a little on what you have learned.
In the words of a Tibetan proverb: “It is better to have lived one day as a tiger, than one thousand years as a sheep.”
Think of this next time you feel unreal fear.
85
CHAPTER 7
Unquiet Times and
Turbulent Minds
Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws.
PLATO
WE ALL HAVE INDIVIDUAL FEARS that come from our personal history. Our culture also adds to our burden of fear. “Now is the age of Anxiety,”
wrote W. H. Auden nearly 50 years ago in his poem “A Baroque Eclogue.” An eclogue is a short pastoral poem, although Auden’s work was far from pastoral. It was about the human quest to find some identity in an increasingly industrialized world. It won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1948.
The postindustrial society is here; we live in unquiet times. There is an undercurrent of vague fear, like shapes in the mist, hard to pin down, but we may feel it when we turn on our television, listen to the radio, or surf the internet. This miasma of fear does not belong to anyone; it is our collective heritage. This chapter is about these shapes in the mist. Once we can see them clearly, we can deal with them more easily. We can unlearn the cultural thinking that gives these fears their power.
Dangerous places
First, the clear and present dangers. Some countries are inherently more dangerous than others. There are countries wracked by war, where violent death is commonplace. There are many excellent books UNQUIET TIMES AND TURBULENT MINDS
by war correspondents about what it is like to live in such places, full of authentic danger. Forbes magazine maintains an updated list of the world’s most dangerous destinations. At the end of 2004 it listed Afghanistan, Haiti, Iraq, Liberia, Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen, and Zimbabwe as the most dangerous destinations (not necessarily in that order).
In every country, there are places that are more dangerous than others. And in every big city, there are areas where only the very confident, the very knowing, or the very foolish will tread at night.
Geneva-based Mercer Human Resource Consulting keeps another list of 200 of the most dangerous cities in the world, based on factors such as crime levels, law enforcement, and internal stability.
Luxembourg is the safest city according to this study. The Central African City of Bangui is considered the least safe. Bad news for the Central African Tourist Board.
Even normally safe cities can experience disaster. For example, Madrid is a very pleasant and safe city, yet it experienced a terrible bomb outrage in 2004. Tokyo is also a safe city, but a few years ago a terrorist group released poison gas in the metro.
When people feel comfortable and safe,
One thing we can do to reduce the fear of death is to make it an adviser to tell us what is the most important thing for us to do in the present. Here is one skill you can use that will make the idea of death enrich your life right now.
The next skill is best done in a quiet place in a relaxed frame of mind.
84
COMMON FEARS THAT HOLD US HOSTAGE
Skill for freedom
Death as an adviser
Imagine yourself in the far future, looking back on your life now.
What do you want to have accomplished by this point?
What important goals do you have that remain dreams?
What would it feel like to have accomplished these things?
Is there anything you need to do now to prepare for the time when you die and are no longer here to take care of people and do the things you enjoy doing?
What advice can you give to the you now, from this place in the far future?
How important are the worries of your present self from this distant point of view?
What is the most important thing that you need to do now?
Come back to the present moment, and reflect a little on what you have learned.
In the words of a Tibetan proverb: “It is better to have lived one day as a tiger, than one thousand years as a sheep.”
Think of this next time you feel unreal fear.
85
CHAPTER 7
Unquiet Times and
Turbulent Minds
Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws.
PLATO
WE ALL HAVE INDIVIDUAL FEARS that come from our personal history. Our culture also adds to our burden of fear. “Now is the age of Anxiety,”
wrote W. H. Auden nearly 50 years ago in his poem “A Baroque Eclogue.” An eclogue is a short pastoral poem, although Auden’s work was far from pastoral. It was about the human quest to find some identity in an increasingly industrialized world. It won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1948.
The postindustrial society is here; we live in unquiet times. There is an undercurrent of vague fear, like shapes in the mist, hard to pin down, but we may feel it when we turn on our television, listen to the radio, or surf the internet. This miasma of fear does not belong to anyone; it is our collective heritage. This chapter is about these shapes in the mist. Once we can see them clearly, we can deal with them more easily. We can unlearn the cultural thinking that gives these fears their power.
Dangerous places
First, the clear and present dangers. Some countries are inherently more dangerous than others. There are countries wracked by war, where violent death is commonplace. There are many excellent books UNQUIET TIMES AND TURBULENT MINDS
by war correspondents about what it is like to live in such places, full of authentic danger. Forbes magazine maintains an updated list of the world’s most dangerous destinations. At the end of 2004 it listed Afghanistan, Haiti, Iraq, Liberia, Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen, and Zimbabwe as the most dangerous destinations (not necessarily in that order).
In every country, there are places that are more dangerous than others. And in every big city, there are areas where only the very confident, the very knowing, or the very foolish will tread at night.
Geneva-based Mercer Human Resource Consulting keeps another list of 200 of the most dangerous cities in the world, based on factors such as crime levels, law enforcement, and internal stability.
Luxembourg is the safest city according to this study. The Central African City of Bangui is considered the least safe. Bad news for the Central African Tourist Board.
Even normally safe cities can experience disaster. For example, Madrid is a very pleasant and safe city, yet it experienced a terrible bomb outrage in 2004. Tokyo is also a safe city, but a few years ago a terrorist group released poison gas in the metro.
When people feel comfortable and safe,
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