ART OF DYING AND WELL, LIVING!?
Niyati Sinojiya
SY Bsc
Approximately a year ago, I enrolled in a ten-day Vipassana course, seeking solace amidst my struggles with anxiety, identity, and existential questions. Vipassana, an insight meditation technique attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, transcends religious boundaries, revealing universal truths about impermanence and transcending individual affiliations.
Vipassana helps one experience the universal truth; the truth about everything being impermanent and it does not see if you are a Buddhist,a Christian,a Hindu or a Muslim.The technique of Vipassana meditation (Observation of the reality within oneself) which is more about observation than meditation, is quite simple yet difficult to practice.The Budhha says that all life is suffering and this suffering is caused by craving and aversion. While embarking on this journey, I anticipated an easy resolution to my identity crisis. However, six days into the course, a sense of confinement overwhelmed me, prompting a desire to escape.
The challenge of Vipassana lies not in combating sleepiness or boredom, as one might assume, but in confronting the unfiltered reality of oneself—uncovering latent anger, craving, attachments, and internalized hatred. The technique requires practitioners to observe bodily sensations—neutral, pleasant, or unpleasant—equanimously and objectively, devoid of judgment. It mirrors life’s impermanence, urging detachment from transient experiences.
By day six, I confronted the difficulty of practicing non-attachment, realizing its profound implications on how we engage with life’s challenges. Vipassana trains one to observe sensations without developing cravings for the pleasant or aversions to the unpleasant, promoting a state of equanimity. This practice extends beyond meditation, offering a pragmatic approach to navigating life’s uncertainties, ambitions, and inevitable losses.
We have all read and heard about this in theory and some of us might even claim that we know all of this and that we abide by it, but once the time comes; when we are unable to achieve what we want or when we lose a very dear person or anything for that matter, we go into a spiraling loop of negativity and depression,even when there are thousands of people telling us that it is okay. And when these people face the same situation, they react in a similar way. Vipassana helps in practicing and implementing what we preach.
The conventional understanding of being human, laden with expectations, attachments, and the subsequent suffering, may, in fact, be a misconception. Vipassana challenges this norm, redefining “being human” as finding contentment without obsessive pursuit of societal benchmarks.For me, the definition “being human” has changed from being obsessed with being the best person,studying in the best college,having the best job and the best position(and consequently being miserable) to being content with life and not obsessing over my goals,simply working to achieve them and leaving the rest. This shift, akin to the Gita’s principle of “karmanyevaadhikaraste,” is a work in progress, acknowledging that occasional setbacks are part of the journey.
Vipassana operates on the subconscious mind, eradicating negative defilements like fear, hatred, jealousy, greed, and attachments. It equips individuals to face life’s hardships with equanimity, ultimately teaching the art of living and, surprisingly, the art of dying.
“Art of dying?”,you ask.
Two years ago I read a book by Taylor Jenkins Reid titled, “ The Seven husbands of Evelyn Hugo”, where the protagonist, Evelyn Hugo, an accomplished actress in Hollywood, dies by commiting suicide after losing all the people she had known in her life, including her husband, her lesbian lover and her daughter. She termed this “Dying with Dignity ” because she had control over when she wanted to die unlike the other unfortunate things that she had faced in her life which she had no control over. She dies because she decided that she wanted to die. After reading the book, I thought that her character was very strong and powerful, and that maybe she had done the right thing in the end. But isn’t this just sad? Isn’t there a solution to the misery of old age and of unhappy death?
Have you ever wondered how enlightened people come to know, moments prior to their death, that they are going to die? And why don’t they panic? Ever wondered why Jesus Christ was so compassionate towards people even while he was nailed to the wall?
Dying, as perceived through the lens of a Vipassanist, is an art form marked by serene acceptance and observation of bodily sensations during the process. This practice, as explained by S.N. Goenka, ensures a tranquil, pain-free passage, a dignified departure from life.
Reflecting on the potential impact of widespread Vipassana practice, one envisions a world freed from the complexities of economic theories or political trivia. Artistic expressions born from misery, immortalized in songs and masterpieces, might diminish, raising the question: is the price of true happiness a worthwhile sacrifice for the creative muse?
P.s. – If everyone in the world practiced Vipassana, we wouldn’t be studying “What happens when cartels cheat in oligopolies” or streets in Italy named after Indian Politicians. There wouldn’t have been songs like “Traitor” by Olivia Rodrigo or “Vienna” by Billy Joel or The Eagles telling us to “Take it Easy” ,we also wouldn’t have had masterpieces like The Starry Night by Van Gogh or The Old Guitarist by Pablo Picasso, and many other great works of art made out of misery, but maybe that’s the price we pay if we are truly happy and it is a price worth paying!