From the objective point of view, it would seem not. A dead organism does not seem healthy. But from the subjective pov, nothing is healthier than death. If you define health as the absence of disease, when you are dead you have no diseases, so you are absolutely healthy.
Facts:
1. You will die.
2. You are solely responsible for your experiences.
This is the foundation of all work on yourself. Without acknowledging and fully incorporating (embodying) these facts all work will ultimately be fantasy.
Death is a universal truth. Not just that the body will die but that everything has a limited time. In the physical world, everything has a beginning and an end.
There’s no time for half measures. Whatever you do, do it all the way. If do, then do. Hesitation is waste.
It’s like a vast conspiracy not to think or talk about it. What’s the most obvious fact about being/having a body? It’s not going to last forever. It will die. Every breath is a number in a countdown. The number of breaths, the number of heartbeats in a life is large, but limited. There will be a last one. And with every experience in life, there will be a last time. A last orgasm, a last meal, a last word, a last kiss, a last breath, a last heartbeat, a last sight, a last sound, a last thought.
It’s hard to accept death. Frankly, having to get sick, get old, and die sucks! And there’s no way, really, to reconcile that, although all religions try. But at least you can use that realization to light a fire under your butt. First of all, don’t be complacent – each day is one day less in your life. Second, don’t fear. Whatever might happen to you short of dying is not so important, since you will die whatever else happens. As Goethe said, “Whatever you can do, or think you can, begin it…” I would add, even if you think you can’t, begin it anyway. You might fail to accomplish it, but you certainly will fail if you don’t begin.
There are several ways to deal with death. Probably the most common way is to ignore it as long as possible. Not helpful. Or one can fight death, as the Western Medical establishment does, trying to keep people alive as long as possible, even with extreme measures.
Death is the most important event in life. What could be more important than preparing for death? You wouldn’t do a theater performance without rehearsing.
There is virtually nothing in Western culture to teach people how to prepare for death. Indeed, can we know how, since it is the “undiscovered country?” After posing this question in Hamlet, Shakespeare answered it thus: “The readiness is all.” Which answers the question with another question: readiness for what?
Probably not answerable in general; each person must come up with its own answer. As each individuality is unique, so must each death be unique. But certainly ignoring it is the worst strategy.
It’s no use to live as if you will die tomorrow; then you can’t make long range plans. But to live as if you COULD die tomorrow, or at any time for that matter. Then every breath becomes important as it might be the last.
And from Death comes freedom. You are free when you have nothing to lose; you have nothing to lose when you have lost everything; only death makes you lose everything. So if Death is here and now, you are free here and now. And if you have nothing, then everything is a gift.
Doubt is your enemy; it can be friend. Doubt is used against you: you are taught to doubt yourself. Turn it around: doubt your conditioning. Doubt why you interpret things the way you do.
Death is healthy. William S. Burroughs: “Instead of being like the retarded medical profession and trying to keep death out, why not let death all the way in?”
Paradoxically, Death gives Life.
Embodying death makes you more alive. Bringing death into an organ vivifies that organ. Burroughs also outlined an exercise: breathe in your death. I would add: send death separately to each organ.
I thought of my body as something static. Now I see it is in constant motion, even in a resting state. When that motion ceases, it dies. Now I can organically sense Death in the body, and it is a good feeling. Death in the present moment. Welcome home, Death!
The amazing thing about a body is not how long it lives, but that it lives at all. Just the body living is such an astounding miracle that it is mindboggling. So many processes have to function perfectly and coordinate with all the other processes continuously so that you can sit there and enjoy your oatmeal. Or get angry, or bemoan the meaninglessness of your existence.
And thinking about how Jesus and Moses performed miracles, while you yourself are performing miracles all the time!
Destiny lies by way of death. God is not watching you, God will not judge you when you die. Your Death is watching you and will judge you. That is, when you are dying you will see your life and value it. So death tells you what your real values are, not those false values from others.
Death is instructing me what to do. And that is correct, because my Death is the wisest part of me. It is the end of my life, so how could any part of me be wiser?
It’s hard not to identify with anything, and that is why you need Death. Death is the greatest teacher.
The only thing that matters is living like a warrior. That means living as if each act might be your last. Without clinging, identifying, or regretting. Continually saying goodby. And being grateful.
Of all experiences a human could have, we can either experience them or hear about them from someone who has. But not death, because no one who has experienced it is talking. At least none has talked to me.
After the heart stops beating, it takes four minutes for the brain to die, arguably your most important four minutes because that’s your last chance.
How often have you wasted four minutes of your life? Most likely in those last four minutes you will have fantasies and associations. Why should it be any different? The mental habits you have established during your life will prevail then too.
If you understood this, you would struggle with your nature every waking minute, because every four minutes of your life are just as precious as those last four.
Maybe that’s why we sleep, because sleep is practice for death. The day is the little life, and sleep is the little death. As you experience, also experience the great and little Deaths watching. Is this experience meaningful to Death?
Death is not the end. If life is a painting, death is the frame. It is the end of course from a strictly linear-time view. The life as a whole can evolve, with the possibility of making higher bodies, in higher dimensions. The whole of the life, in time, becomes a “body.”
As the Universe is a closed system, no experience can be lost, but the meaning can transform.