Facing Death

I am concerned about many things, death and loss are not among them. Instead, my life is a forward journey; I know not the beginning, I see not the end. Yet I face my inevitable conclusion with eyes wide open. Death shall not take me by surprise, nor will I crumble and weep in its wake because I have accepted my fate, and liberated myself from the burdens of dying. I will embrace the moment with calm dignity and composure. But even in the last fleeting seconds of my existence, I will still find course to smile and live, and let things happen as they will. It is foolish to think that you can steer the ways of nature. Fighting against heaven and earth only makes a mockery of your life and erases any deeds well done. It is best to die with certainty, removed from anger, regret, self-pity, and fear. Understand that life and death are not matters of choice for man to decide. You cannot lay claim to which you did not create. The spirit of life existed long before the first persons walked the face of the earth, and we are all but an intricate part of the wholeness of life.

A wise man lives as though he were dead, and therefore he finds fulfillment in everything that he does. Illness, weapons, and wild beasts cannot harm him, because he is so full of life that death has no room to enter. A man preoccupied with death is already dead even before he is buried. The same can be said of execution in combat. "Even if a warrior's head were to be suddenly cut off, he should still be able to perform one more action with certainty. If one becomes like a revengeful ghost and shows great determination, he should not die."