{"id":33566,"date":"2021-04-24T10:50:00","date_gmt":"2021-04-24T14:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=33566"},"modified":"2021-04-30T10:27:50","modified_gmt":"2021-04-30T14:27:50","slug":"death-lessons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/death-lessons\/","title":{"rendered":"Learning From Death: Lessons About a Meaningful Life"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>What lessons can you learn from death? How is the awareness of the fact that you can die any minute help you experience life more fully?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Death is your greatest spiritual teacher. The secret to living a fulfilling and meaningful life lies in the lessons your death has to teach you. And you don\u2019t have to wait until the end of your life to attend to them. You can practice them right now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here are seven spiritual lessons you can learn from death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">7 Spiritual Lessons You Can Learn From Death<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>1) The treasure of life.<\/strong> It doesn\u2019t take things away, it gives them to you. Your life is a tiny blip in an unfolding of reality that\u2019s billions of years old. The reality of death enables you to appreciate the things in your experience of this stupendous cosmic dance that you\u2019ve always taken for granted, the experiences you\u2019ve never really paid attention to because you were stuck in a mental hyperworld where you pursued egocentric unrealities.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>2) Perspective shift.<\/strong> If you knew you were going to die tonight, this would change how you view everything. And the fact is, <em>you will<\/em> <em>die<\/em>. Maybe in 30 years. Maybe in the next 60 seconds. Let this create the same change in your perspective right now. Let it lead you to straighten your affairs and let go of problems and grudges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>3)<\/strong> <strong>Understanding your priorities.<\/strong> Appreciation of death leads you to give up any desire for \u201cspecial\u201d experiences that you might miss because of death. It shows you that such desires are what keep you from being fully present for real experiences in each moment.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>4) Love. <\/strong>It makes you more deeply cherish your time with your loved ones. It makes you more present and attentive with them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>5) Courage.<\/strong> When you embrace and live from the fact that you will die, you won\u2019t have any last wishes, because you will have taken risks and achieved your wishes in every moment.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>6)<\/strong> <strong>Death makes you really live. <\/strong>For someone who\u2019s truly awakened, the arrival of death doesn\u2019t change anything about how they\u2019ve been living, because a person has already been living fully, saying yes to life, living in the bliss of nonresistance and nonclinging.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>How to Practice the Teaching<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>To practice the lessons of death, you don\u2019t have to change what you do. Instead, change <em>how<\/em> you do it and <em>how much of you<\/em> is present for it.<\/strong> Appreciate walking, breathing, rainfalls, arguments, good food, bad food, literally everything, more intensely than you ever have before. Every moment of your life can fill you completely and touch the very depths of your being, like the experience of finally hearing your favorite classical composition played by your favorite orchestra.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Think of death any time you\u2019re having trouble. Are you experiencing anger or jealousy? Think of what it will be like when you\u2019re dead and gone. This will put the immediate trigger in perspective and elicit compassion for whoever or whatever is inciting your feelings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Study the words and actions of the great spiritual teachers, who fully <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/accept-death\/\">embrace death<\/a>. St. Paul said, \u201cOh death, where is thy sting? Oh grave, where is thy victory?\u201d Buddhists contemplate the temporal nature of all things. Yogis meditate in graveyards. Take inspiration and guidance from such people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What lessons can you learn from death? How is the awareness of the fact that you can die any minute help you experience life more fully? Death is your greatest spiritual teacher. The secret to living a fulfilling and meaningful life lies in the lessons your death has to teach you. And you don\u2019t have to wait until the end of your life to attend to them. You can practice them right now. Here are seven spiritual lessons you can learn from death.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":32178,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,43,6],"tags":[271],"class_list":["post-33566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","category-self-improvement","category-spiritual","tag-the-untethered-soul","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Learning From Death: Lessons About a Meaningful Life - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Death is your greatest spiritual teacher. 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The secret to living a fulfilling life lies in the seven lessons death has to teach you.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/death-lessons\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-04-24T14:50:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-04-30T14:27:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/death-flower-mortality-decay-rose.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Darya Sinusoid\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Darya Sinusoid\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/death-lessons\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/death-lessons\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Darya Sinusoid\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0421cce75bc249b11e2517b3a91f9c46\"},\"headline\":\"Learning From Death: Lessons About a Meaningful Life\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-04-24T14:50:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-04-30T14:27:50+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/death-lessons\/\"},\"wordCount\":564,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/death-lessons\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/death-flower-mortality-decay-rose.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"The Untethered Soul\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Education\",\"Self-Improvement\",\"Spiritual\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/death-lessons\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/death-lessons\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/death-lessons\/\",\"name\":\"Learning From Death: Lessons About a Meaningful Life - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/death-lessons\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/death-lessons\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/death-flower-mortality-decay-rose.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-04-24T14:50:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-04-30T14:27:50+00:00\",\"description\":\"Death is your greatest spiritual teacher. 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