ical, discerning attitude, you will be tormented by the mind’s
myriad tricks and never learn to tame its unruly nature. You have
yet to leave, but already you trust the whisperings of the kilesas
more than the advice of your teacher. How will you ever manage?
Although people the world over have yet to die, they are all ter-
rified of death. But birth, the enticement luring them into death,
is feared by no one – everyone craves birth. I cannot figure out
why people are so infatuated with birth. Just one birth in a phys-
ical body means immense suffering and anxiety. Suppose human
beings could send up shoots like a clump of bamboo: their eager-
ness for birth would increase rampantly. Each person desiring
to branch out into hundreds, or thousands, of additional people,
without giving thought to how the combined fear of so many
people dying at once might affect them. The whole world would
become tumultuous with the fear of death and there would be no
safe place to live.
“You are a practicing monk, a trained spiritual warrior. Yet
your fear of death surpasses that of the untrained laity. Why do
you let the kilesas harass you in this way? You have the mindful-
ness and wisdom needed to defend yourself, so why don’t you use
them? Go on the offensive. Chase out the devious kilesas lurk-
ing there in your heart. Then you will realize how stupid you’ve
been, blindly serving their interests, unaware of the power they
have over you. A warrior’s victory depends on his willingness to
brave death on the battlefield. If you’re not willing to die, then you
shouldn’t enter the battle zone. Only by braving death will you be
able to defeat your enemies. If you are truly determined to tran-
scend dukkha, by realizing its true nature, you must view your fear
of death as one form of dukkha – a product of the kilesas stored
jacob rumans
(Jacob Rumans)
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