Reflections on Life and Death

Detachment from This World mind becomes alert in this way, you will become your own inspector. You will continuously guard and inspect your thoughts, your words, your behaviour—your every action. You will act in line with this advice of the Caliph Umar: “Weigh your actions before they are weighed.” Detachment from This World I t generally happens that when someone well-known dies, people write articles about him in newspapers and magazines. These articles are full of praise for the deceased. Sometimes, functions are organized in their memory, where speakers recount their deeds and greatness in glowing terms. This actually leads to much misunderstanding. What really happens when someone dies is that he suddenly leaves behind all signs of his greatness. Death delivers him into a world where he is totally alone and bereft of any possessions. From the point of view of the present, this is exactly what the dead person’s condition now is. But those who write and speak about him do not mention this present status of his. They dwell on his past when he lived in this present world and they use that to sing his praises, even though the deceased has, for all practical purposes, been totally cut off from this past. For a person, death actually means total detachment