My death will be an event only for others.

Nothing is guaranteed....except death. And before that, life. And there is one thing to be said for life: it lasts longer than death. Plus, my death will be an event only for others. i am never likely to be dead as long as I am alive. Let others then be bothered about it. Why should I waste even a moment's worth of my life worrying about something that is never going to happen to me as long as I am alive. ...And if there is life after death, I can not imagine myself crying over my death in that because then, I would already be living beyond my death. So its like this: Death does not matter now because I can not die as long as I am alive. And death surely does not matter to the dead; nothing matters for them. And death wouldn't matter even if its not -- especially if its not -- the end of my soul, because then in any case its a non-event. So does death matter, really?

I have never agreed with those -- even if some of them may have been prophets -- that this life is unreal and death is real. To me , real and unreal make sense only so long as I am alive. The moment I die, reality dies too. As for life after death, unlike many others, I will have to die to find that out, and I am in no mood to do that as long as I am alive.

Having said that life is real while it lasts, let me hasten to add that its always good to remember that, though not unreal, life is still not permanent. Its of foolish to let our behaviour, beliefs and attitudes be such as if we believed we are going to be here for ever. Far from filling us with despair, awareness of life's impermanence must make us more aware of the value of the sources of happiness that can not be taken away from us. And it does not take a saint or a genius to understand that greed, bitterness, anger and pettiness are not those sources. On the contrary, these are the very tools that make our happiness a hostage to factors beyond our control.