There is a theory in martial arts that states that in order to know how to live you have to know how to die. The concept of your life benefiting from knowing you could die at any time is littered throughout personal development literature.

I am going to explain how you can put this into practice in your life

The Common Concept

The fact of the matter is that you could die at any moment, even if the chances are slim it is possible. Heart attack, freak acts of nature. Even simple things such as crossing the road are full of danger. The theory is that if you understand how short your life might be then you will not waste the little precious time you have.

Knowing you could die you don’t waste time with negative emotions and unnecessary thoughts. You only do what is most valuable to your life.

At this level the concept is impractical

It is obvious that I could die right now. This is knowledge you already have, so bringing it to the surface is very unlikely to have any lasting effect.

Appreciating the fact intellectually is not very useful. What needs to happen is to take it to the intuitive level.

Prepare to face Death’s Edge

What you need to do is to imagine yourself in the moments before death. Freeze the scene at the very last moment before you die. Make sure you are in the 1st person.

I find deaths that are sudden work much better than prolonged deaths like illness where it is hard to really appreciate when exactly the last moment before you die is.

Being a japanese martial artist, I imagine a samurai cutting forcefully down on me. With the blade just beginning to make contact with my head.

You might find a gun more realistic for your imagination. If you can think of a sudden death that doesn’t involve violence then you can use that if you prefer, but there is no sugar coating death.

Requirements of your Last Moments before Death

With the scene you have chosen to die in you must be able to include the following:

• Some prelude to the actual scene of your death
• Slow motion in the last few seconds leading up to the moment of death
• A dead certainty that at the last moment, you will die, no doubt about it
• You must be the only person going to die
• The cause of your death must be directed specifically at you. Accidental deaths don’t have as much energy behind them

Experiencing your Last Moments before Death

Get comfortable, relax and close your eyes.

Start watching yourself in your scene. At this stage you don’t think you will die.

Now a few moments before the final scene you start seeing everything in slow motion. All of a sudden you realise the very real possibility that you might die. Let these moments drag out for an eternity as this possibility dawns on you heavier and heavier.

You experience in totality your last moment alive. Death is unavoidable. Freeze this moment and feel it.

These final steps are the most important

Now while experiencing your final moment, you must look at your thoughts and emotions. What are they saying? How are you feeling?

Spend some time coming to grips with your thoughts and emotions. Making sure to keep the last moment visible and real.

Once you think you understand the thoughts and emotions going on you can continue. You may not get to appreciate all your emotions in one go, that is fine, just understand it as best you can.

Now ask yourself the following questions:

• Now that I am about to die. Is there any reason for me to be thinking these thoughts? Do they benefit me at all?
• This feeling that I have as I am dying. Is it worthwhile me feeling this way?
• As I die, what should I be thinking and feeling? What is the best way to be in death?

Contemplate these questions for awhile until you either have a ‘ah-ha’ realisation or you feel you find a deep, meaningful, final and absolute answer.

I haven’t told you my realisation because I think it works best to not let the mind presume things.

Once you have your realisation, write it down. More important than the realisation is the feeling of really knowing exactly how you should be at that moment. You must revisit what you have written in order to remind yourself of how it felt. This is to ingrain it. Revisit it everyday. This is knowing how to Die.

Go from Knowing How to Die to Knowing How to Live

How you are internally when you die is how you should be when you live. How you Die is How you Live.

In the last moment before death you chose the best way to be. You are actually choosing the best way to be in any moment. This you will have to trust me on until you experience it for yourself.

Closing thoughts from one who has lived on the edge of death

Recently I was lucky enough to spend time with and talk to my martial arts teachers teacher from Japan. When he was a young man he trained with his teacher using real swords, where truly an inch was the difference between life and death. After lunch one day he related a gem to us. Reaching for the salt and pepper shakers he placed them one in front of the other.

‘All martial arts have one goal’

He waves his hands moving from the wide base of the table edge to the single point of the pepper shaker.

‘Learn how to die’

He pauses looking around at each of us, pondering our expressions.

‘Do you know?’

He pauses longer again looking around. Then he turns and says

‘This very difficult to understand… Learn how to die… Then…’

He points ahead to the salt shaker.

‘Learn how to live…’

The silence stretches forever as it sets in.

The Japanese sensei sits there, solemnly nodding his head. It is clear that decades of experience have gone into his monologue. The contrast with his usual character, always laughing and making jokes adds an incredible gravity to the scene.

What a wonderful experience.

So how do you live?