' The Great Oblivion '...

The real meaning of death and dying is completely different from what is generally understood by these words.

When you know the continuum of life, all perceptions (of which body is a part) are felt as appearing and disappearing in consciousness. This apparition and disappearance is the true meaning of birth and death. We are born every time a thought or sensation appears, and we die whenever the concept or percept disappears.

We die every night before we fall asleep and we are born every morning anew. We have to get used to this death, to the ‘lâcher’ (appearance) of the objective world. We should ask ourselves, the deepest of ourselves: "what is there before the apparition of thought? What happens when thought disappears? What is there before the body fell asleep and before we woke up?"

When we look carefully, we discover not the absence of us, but a presence, a presence that cannot be objectified. It is too close to us.



- Jean Klein, The Great Oblivion