The whole day whenever you remember, exhale deeply and don’t inhale. Allow the body to inhale; you simply exhale deeply. You will feel a deep peace, because death is peace, death is silence. And if you can pay attention, more attention, to exhalation, you will feel egoless. With inhalation you feel more egoistic; with exhalation you feel more egoless. The whole day whenever you remember, exhale deeply and don’t inhale. Allow the body to inhale and you don’t do anything.
This emphasis on exhalation will help you very much to do this experiment, because you will be ready to die. A readiness is needed, otherwise the technique will not be of much help. And you can be ready only if you have tasted death in a certain way. Exhale deeply and you will have a taste of it. It is beautiful. Because nothing is like death – so silent, so relaxing, so calm, so unperturbed. But we are afraid of death. And why are we afraid of death? Why is there so much fear of death? We are afraid of death not because of death – because we don’t know it. How can you be afraid of something you have never encountered? Something you don’t know? At least you must know it, to be afraid of it. So really you are not afraid of death; the fear is something else. You have never really lived – that creates the fear of death.
The fear comes because you are not living, so you are afraid – “I have not lived yet, and if death happens, then what? Unfulfilled, unloved, I will die.” The fear comes to only those who are not really Alive. If you are alive, you will welcome death. Then there is no fear. You have lived life; now you would like to know Death also. But we are so afraid of life itself that we have not known it, we have not entered deep into it. That creates the fear of death.
If you want to enter this technique you must be aware of this deep fear. And this deep fear must be thrown away, purged, only then can you enter the technique. This will help: pay more attention to exhalation. The whole day you will feel relaxed and an inner silence will be created.
Excerpted From Meditation-The First and Last Freedom, PG no: 168 to 169
