生命中唯一的确定，我们每个人都必须面对的一个约定，是我们为死亡做最少准备的那个。从佛陀的生命和最后的日子，罗摩克里希纳帕拉马哈姆萨，罗摩那玛哈尔西，甘地，维诺巴；从我们的宗教经文；来自伟大冥想大师的教导；从santhara到sannyas，再到我们可以通过他的个人经历来驯服我们的思维的实践，Arun Shourie提供了一些线索，以确保我们以平静的态度面对我们的目的。
在这个过程中，他规定了如果仪式、朝圣和咒语要帮助我们，我们必须做什么。他引导我们问，像藏文《亡灵书》这样的文本是为亡灵准备的，还是为我们活着的人提供了教训？他引导我们看穿我们吃的镇静剂。即使我们被“地狱”的描述吓坏了，我们不是真的被催眠了吗？我们将在地狱中面临极端折磨的事实，难道不意味着我们将以某种形式在死亡中幸存下来吗？毕竟，要体验它们，我们必须在场。
宗教引诱我们提出重大问题。有没有一个灵魂是不生不死的？死后还有生命吗？有重生吗？有上帝吗？什么是真实的，什么只是玛雅？最伟大的老师和神秘主义者给出了不同的答案。他们中的每一个人都直接体验过自己或他所宣称的真理。那么，我们该如何进行呢？
Preparing for Death
The one certainty in life, the one appointment which each of us will just have to face, is the one for which we do the least to prepare-death. From the lives and last days of the Buddha, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Ramana Maharshi, Gandhiji, Vinoba; from our religious texts; from the teachings of great meditation masters; from santhara to sannyas to practices by which we may tame our mind-leavening all these by his personal experiences-Arun Shourie presents clues to ensure that we face our end with equanimity.
In the process, he lays down what we must do if rituals, pilgrimages and mantras are to help us. He leads us to ask whether texts such as The Tibetan Book of the Dead are for the dead, or do they set out lessons for us, the living? He leads us to see through the sedatives that we are fed. Even as we are being frightened by accounts of ‘hell’, are we not actually being lulled to sleep? Does the fact that we will face extreme tortures in hell not mean that in some form we will survive death? To experience them, after all, we must be present.
Religions entice us into the great questions. Is there a soul that is never born and never dies? Is there life after death? Is there rebirth? Is there God? What is real and what is just maya? The greatest teachers and mystics have come up with different answers. Each of them has had direct experience of what she or he has proclaimed to be the truth. How, then, are we to proceed?
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