The Fear of Death

How can one overcome the fear of death when it seems that the felt sense of being is linked to the mind? Rupert says: ‘When you are going to sleep, do you feel that you are going to die, that you are heading for annihilation? If you really thought you were heading for extinction when you went to sleep, you would be terrified of going to sleep. But you don’t – you look forward to sleeping, at least when you are tired. And you look forward to sleeping because you know it’s peaceful there. You know it’s not oblivion, you know it’s peace. The reason you know it’s peaceful is because you have experienced it on numerous occasions. You are aware of that peace in deep sleep, not in a self-reflective way as in the waking state, but you are just pure awareness of being in deep sleep. Have you or anybody else ever, for a moment, had the experience of the disappearance of being? No. Why do you think there is such a thing, if it completely contradicts your experience? Your fear of death comes from the belief that being or awareness is generated by the body and dies with it, but this belief has no foundation in experience. Since you’ve never experienced the disappearance of being – not in deep sleep, not in any state – the fear of death is based on a concept, not on reality. Why not base your ideas and feelings on what you actually experience? Being has never disappeared, never been born, and therefore will never die.’

From event 05 - 12 April, 2025 Seven-Day Retreat at Mandali, 5–12 April 2025

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