Death

Haha, after my last blog entry, I think this title make many readers stand up, because this title is the last subject many readers would have thought about after such an upbeat entry. I think the reason would be because death is such a taboo subject, especially we are an Asian society. In an Asian society, death should not ever be mentioned for the reason that it might just happen the minute you mentioned it.

Well, what is death? Death to me, means that my life in this body has ended and it is time to advance to another realm. But does that mean that I will just be another name in the long list of death certificates to be issued? Not really if we do something about this life. Remember I mentioned something about an ideal funeral?

I would also like to bring the readers' attention to this verse in the Analects of Confucius. Note that although it comes from the Analects, it is not quoted from Confucius but from Zeng Zi.

English: Zeng Zi said "Everyday I examine myself on three counts. In what I have undertaken on other's behalf, did I not I not do my best? In my dealings with friends, have I failed to be trustworthy in what I say? Have I failed to practise repeatedly what I have learned?

Modern: 曾子曰：“我每天常三次反省我自己。我替人谋事，没有尽我的心吗？我和朋友相交，又不信实的吗？我所传授于人的，有不是我自己所日常讲习的吗？

Original: 曾子曰：“吾日三省吾身为人谋而不忠乎？与朋友交而不信乎？传不习乎？”

If you look at the first question, it is has tell us how we should live our lives, we should do our best and live every moment to the fullest. Give it our best in every moment we are alive in this world. Only then can we say that we have tried our best in achieving our dreams.

We all know that in order not to waste the life that we have now, we should live it to the fullest and live like there is no tomorrow. If most of us have this knowledge, how come most of us, 99% out there, are not doing it and when they died and look back into their past and then start to regret it? Because human have a tendency to procrastinate. This is a very bad habit that we humans are born with. Why we procrastinate because we are very sure that we have a "tomorrow", another day. And since living the present to the fullest takes a lot of hard work, we tend to push "living to the fullest" to the next moment and to the next moment.

We have read stories that people who knows when they are dying, they suddenly realise the daily pursuit that they are in seems meaningless and start to think about living their life to the fullest, pursuing their dreams and so on. By that time, it might be too late already and they start having regrets.

Start thinking how you want your life to be, what dreams you want to achieve, work towards it, give it your best shot when you are working on it. Now I did not say you should give up your job altogether, you still need to nourish this body of yours, to keep it going in tip-top position so that you can achieve your dreams, so you still need money. Until you reach a point where your passive income exceeds your expenses, your time needs to be split between reality and achieving your dreams.

Only when you have reach your dreams or touch many people lives positively, can I say you can welcome death in a more peaceful manner because you do not have any regrets when death comes.

Cheers!