Live well, die well - Part 1

[Sound] [Sound] To start To realize that to talk about death is to talk about life is so absolutely interconnected

We cannot separate Life from death There is a story of Of a Zen master and his disciple who asks him the disciple asks the master how to I must prepare for death And the master tells him Learn to live The disciple asks him and how I learn to live master answers him Prepare yourself for death If you analyze Our life Well, it's a Like a cycle that begins at birth and ends at death

Apparently But these two extremes are absolutely unknown really If you're going like Backwards in your life to the time you were born there comes a point when you don't know what happened before

It is a mystery Same thing If you go back and we go back Onward to the moment of our death For we also face the unknown we do not really know

What is going to happen [Sound] And right now we're kind of at a point between our birth and our death as well

Those of you who are watching me and I myself are interested in the topic How to prepare for that moment And the base the first base It is precisely To be aware Of that Deep interconnection between life and death of that deep interrelationship Because generally we are not conscious of being alive either

We think we live our life as if it was eternal as if we will never die And here's a metaphor that I heard in some teachings of a Buddhist teacher A Lama TulkuLobsang that he was saying that Life will be like being in a hotel in a 5 star hotel and we're then In a wonderful hotel a spa with all amenities Happy with a buffet Very large with a wide Possibility to choose what we want to eat and there comes a day because the director of that Hotel and tells us Look what it is that it turns out that you at 12 o'clock in the morning you have to leave the hotel already So first we are like And because if I am very comfortable here, you don't have to leave because we have overbooking

There are people waiting and you have to leave And you say no no I don't want to leave here I am very comfortable and I have money

I can pay you whatever it takes and the hotel owner says no no no no no it's not that it's not custión I can pay you for the money you have to go now

At 12 o'clock And of course We are leaving that hotel With such rage and such frustration And I was talking to you about seeing life and I was talking about seeing life like All Life and death as a whole but not a single static fact if not in continuous change in continuous transition life is not a static thing We have we are continuously changing the different stages of life going from the From childhood To adolescence from adolescence to adulthood old age These are changes All changes of Working Breaks Are continuous Transitions that we go through during our life until our death and then still After death according to the Buddhist tradition and many traditions that contemplate also Other lives then we pass to another state to another intermediate period and so on

Continuously it's like a cycle but in general the changes No they usually produce like some discomfort and some pain also many Emotions sadness in the face of losses uncertainty of not knowing what is going to happen And we tend to avoid the pain of change But You are Small transitions these changes can teach us many things most of the obstacles we encounter

Precisely when we are going to die It is because we have refused To die to these little deaths that have to do with These losses and changes that we experience throughout our lives And that can teach us many things But to be able to To understand or to be able to see His teaching we must first learn how to slow down To slow down like that accelerated pace at which our mind is going It is important And now I invite you to do with me a little short exercise That it helps to lower as decibels helps to calm the mind

It is an exercise Which takes It's very useful is proven from neuroscience also can be used in moments How much emotional stress when you have a very anxious situation

This has a biological explanation even why when we're in a very high anxiety situation of very high emotional stress when we're in a high anxiety situation

Stress is very activated our primitive brain and a brain structure called the amygdala

The cerebral amygdala Y There when we are like this or when a person is like this in an intense anxiety crisis

No the emotional part the cognitive part is kind of blocked let's say it's trapped no You don't understand and you don't reach the person through the Cognition

And what helps a lot in that moment is to bring the attention to the body in the techniques of Buddhist meditation in which you work on the tension there are Different ways to work the tension there is the attention to the body the tension to the body

the breath the attention to the emotions but to lower this one Anxiety when we are in a very stressful situation or with a very accelerated mind is very good and to lower this anxiety is very good and Very useful to bring the attention to the body so let's do a very short exercise

From attention to the body You sit in a comfortable posture And let's do some breathing first Bringing our attention to the breath And with each With every exhalation you imagine You feel Or you perceive What are you Exhaling eliminating Removing from your body then All the anxiety Stress [Sound] Concerns We take three breaths [Sound] And now you're going to bring the tension to your body

In 7 points At the feet [Sound] The hips [Sound] The back [Sound] The shoulders [Sound] The hands [Sound] The eyes [Sound] And the head [Sound] Try to locate if there is any tension point Somewhere in any of these body parts Try to relax and that muscle tension [Sound] And now we are going to do 10 breaths counting them Inhale Exhale and count one Inhale Exhale and count two Inhale Exhale and count 3 Inhale Exhale and count four Inhale Exhale And you count Five Inhalas Exhale And you count four You inhale Exhale And counts 3 [Sound] Inhale Exhale and count two You inhale and exhale And you count one [Sound] Now feel how you feel right now Try to let yourself feel A sense of calm While you watch Quietly Your breathing [Sound] And this simple exercise helps to calm the mind

And there is also a benefit that it helps to develop concentration which is very important

For life at work when you're doing something and you're doing something and For death at the moment of death and a way also to train yourself in The attention in the in the observation is starting with simple things for example I've been observing and being aware are being attentive to activities Everyday When you are drinking A cup of coffee or tea When you are reading Walking Why what happens when we are doing something We are in everything Less between what we are doing We are with the mind How to say buddhism is said monkey mind Back and forth And then So you drop things, you trip over them You forget to do something important that you should have done because you are thinking about something else What happens for example when You are with one with a cup of coffee in your hand Suddenly the coffee cup is full And the next minute it is empty And what happened in between You haven't noticed We were in front of a full plate of food And then it's empty What happened Where we were while it was happening We go to sleep we disappear Inos and the next day we wake up what happened in between Before we were alive and now we are dead what happened We didn't realize it while it was happening but we prefer to avoid the pain of the changes We even prefer to have sometimes to hold on or be in really painful situations rather than To open ourselves as to something else and before we don't know what is going to happen

And really What gives well being is not the clinging but the letting go And up to here Van Three aspects Important for Preparing to start preparing for death What would you know Tell what they are They are we were talking about Important first to be aware of the Interconnection Impermanence Then he being conscious Attention And to know how to let go But It's like we always kind of always strive to always like To build like something like something solid and secure And when we are convinced that we have that we have something something something solid Behold then comes impermanence and death to disrupt everything and really Even In the worst of situations when it seems that in situations when it seems that all our world It is moved because to a there is always we have A possibility we always have the possibility to let go like that little world That fades away and open like the look open the horizon And open you something else and death offers us that chance to connect With the breadth of your mind but if you have not been used to Familiarize yourself with that breadth as you receive it

Like a threat and you reject it, that's why it's so important to familiarize yourself with it

Becoming familiar with death [Sound]