Impermanent nature of the self

The impermanent nature of the self is quite obvious even if one chooses to ignore it! Each moment changes the complex dynamics surrounding our existence. Osho Rajneesh's discourses on the Kathopanishad is documented in a well reasoned book “The Message Beyond Words”. While one might not agree with everything that is said – for instance, Osho mentions ‘Death is an absolute lie’, for, how can Death be an absolute lie when it is so sure to happen! Death must be an absolute truth. This book still makes for a very enjoyable reading on the most definitive event of all life-forms - Death. But as the Osho points out, it is easy to ‘entertain’ yourself on such matters by only engaging the intellect to such matters without practicing the art of dying or observing the process of dying by ensuring that you are consciously living the present!

Vipassana - the art and practice of conscious meditation observing the rise and fall of sensations at the gross body level, at the more subtler levels in the inner core of a person and finally at the most subtle level of the consciousness itself, a practice that I learnt in 2000 as taught by Shri S. N. Goenka holds the key to detached living within the context of Kathopanishad. There is often a doubt that has risen in my mind while practicing Vipassana whether in the process you vegetate in a meaningless state! I am not in any way suggesting a reclusive lifestyle; on the contrary. After reaching a certain stage within my saadhana, I have come to realize that everything is eventually a waste if the final definitive destination to be attained is Death. With Death, all things one holds important and dear come to an end. With Death, all things that are considered a waste and is detested, does not matter! The event of Death seems to reset everything that is ephemeral into a state of nothingness – a deep void. So what carries forward after Death, if everything that is ephemeral has to be eventually given up? Is there anything at all that will carry forward – in an after-life? If everything I now have as possessions or as materialistic accumulations is bound to lose its identity only to become relics in a sense and may only have a value as an antique, what is the purpose of such accumulation in this life? Is purposeful living in the moment, to make every wakeful moment contribute in the preparation for the after-life? What about ego? What about pride? You lose even that!