If death is ugly, it means your whole life has been a waste. Death should be a peaceful acceptance, a loving entry into the unknown, a joyful farewell to friends, to the old world. There shouldn't be any tragedy in it.
One Zen master, Lin-chi, was dying. Thousands of disciples gathered to hear his last sermon, but Ling-chi just lay there, joyful, smiling, without saying a word.
Seeing that he was about to die, and yet he did not say a word, someone reminded Ling-chi - an old friend, a master in his own right... He was not a student of Ling-chi; that's why he could tell him:
“Ling-chi, have you forgotten that you have to say the last words?” I always said that your memory is bad. You're dying... have you forgotten?
And Ling-chi said:
- Listen.
Two squirrels were running and rustling on the roof. And he said:
“How beautiful,” and he died.
For a moment, when he said, “Listen,” there was absolute silence. Everyone thought that he would say something grandiose, but only two squirrels fought, rustled, ran on the roof... He smiled and died. But he gave one last message: don't make things small and big, trivial and important. Everything is important. And at this moment, Lin-chi's death is as important as these two squirrels running on the roof, there is no difference. In existence everything is equal. This was his whole philosophy, his whole teaching of life - nothing is great and nothing is small; It's up to you what you do with it.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru