Our original state is nonbeing, nonexistence, and we spend much of our lives trying to break free of matter, free of mind and desire, back into the deep region of being and nonbeing we are at the core.
Being and Non-Being produce each other.
That region of being is described in the Heart Sutra, the central text of Zen, as having "no eyes, no ears, no nose, no tongue, no body, no mind, and no consciousness." To get there you must die before you die. Buddha's Heart Sutra draws one along to the understanding that in that dissolving nothing exists by itself.
Dying before you die is the best way to die. Any arising fear,pain and suffering that might or might not be experienced as a live sentient creature is and will be endured only because we are capable of conciously dying while remaining alive. This conscious dying lessens the sting of actual death as it draws ever closer and closer, we are able to welcome it with open arms and then let go effortlessly because we've already practiced while being alive, as we already know we are not, so there is nothing to fear or lose,for what is death but going to sleep.The refreshment of dreamless sleep when we are, but are not, conscious is a taste of it. We are here then, but with no awareness of being here.
If this sounds like more word salad, then so be it. All I can say is take it or leave it.
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The Love Way is not Religious
Re: The Love Way is not Religious
Sufis say that the heart is "the comprehensive human reality," and that the way of love is a path of annihilation, of the beatitude of "as though it had never been."