"When Death is the end of Life; Why should Life all Labour Be?"- Comment

"When Death is the end of Life; Why should Life all Labour Be?"- Comment….. Prof. B.L. Handoo

Steve Stokes wrote:
Life should not all labour be. We ought not live to work, but instead work to live... on this journey that we call life, we must balance enterprise with experience. In other words, we should work in order that we can play.

Life is short, and it could be over with at the drop of a hat, so we must not waste a moment. We should do what we must do in order that we can do what we desire to do.

Steve

Scott Byorum wrote:
I keep telling my boss that but they just don't seem to get it. Neither does my landlord or my creditors.

Kevin Harville wrote:
All we ever have, under any circumstances, is the moment. We are part of the universe, like cells in a body, and if we only look at ourselves in this time period, life is senseless.

But when we consider the FACT that we are not just lonely separate parts of the universe, but parts of a much larger process, then life makes sense. For instance, you may consider only your own life, but YOUR life is simply one stage in a process that started with the first life on earth, which started because of the Big Bang. From the first DNA to your DNA, this process has NOT CEASED, but has CONTINUED, UNINTERRUPTED, giving rise to a person who is on linked in, communing with other parts of the universe (us), pondering the meaning of life, consciously.

Through us the universe experiences life. We are like leaves on a tree appearing and disappearing from season to season. But the tree remains.

We are a necessary process and stage in the evolution of the universe.

Indira Chaudhry wrote:
Life, like a fire, begins in smoke and ends in ashes.

Life itself cannot give you joy/ Unless you really will it./ Life just gives you time and space -- It's up to you to fill it....Life is half spent before one knows what life is.....

Neetubala Raina wrote:
Dear Prof.

Not sure if I will be successful in putting down my thoughts together to answer your query but would certainly give it a try as your query within itself has thousands of queries echoing.

"When Death is the end of Life; Why should Life all Labour Be?"
I believe, while I am on the deathbed, I would rather wish to die a peaceful and dignified death, happily recalling all those efforts/labors that probably were successful / unsuccessful but intentions behind were too genuine for sure. I would certainly not want to be full of regrets while I am on the deathbed for having done nothing but wait for the doomsday to arrive for myself.

It is a perception too that differs from person to person. More than half of the humans on earth, I am afraid if think so profoundly about life and death!!!! “Ignorance is bliss” stands true for such a philosophical thought process and happy are they who don’t understand this or wish not to understand this. Anyway, God bless all!
“Life is a comedy to those who think and tragedy to those who feel”
Few lines from my poem I would like to recite here that I jotted down while having similar thoughts:
“I understand things that I am not interested in,
I am living the kind of life that I find no charm in
Bless me with the ignorance, which to people makes sense,
Replace my ability to perceive with such “blissful ignorance”

One query that comes to my mind is “why parent a child when we know death is the end of life?”
I believe nothing on the earth is as dear as the child to a parent. Still we love our kids more than ourselves and make sincere efforts to give them a good life and bring them up as a good human being. A parent is the one whose happiness knows no boundaries while the child is admired. And while I am on the deathbed I would happily want to leave the world only if I see my child standing before me as an independent human, emotionally stable and capable of leading a successful life, an ideal life that I would teach him about based on my experiences to make him stronger.

Similarly I believe like we love our kids and feel proud seeing them successful when they grow up, probably when on the deathbed our body while bidding good bye to our soul would certainly wish to feel proud and have no regrets before leaving the world, a world that had and gave ample opportunities to ensure a dignified death. So I would make the most of the opportunities made available to me to ensure I die respectfully in my own eyes essentially.
Labour in life basically gives a positive direction enabling us to do justice to our capabilities and our essence as a human being.

Thanks so much!
Neetu

Rodica Petrescu wrote:

Dear Professor,

What is proper Life, one asks, when it ends in Death anyway?
What should Life be? Chasing pleasures? Labour? Refusal? Wealth? Worship? An anticipation and waiting for death?

Each must try answer what is Life and why he/she is here; there is no one answer like the other and no answer is better than the other.
I cannot speak for someone else. All I know is it takes a lifetime to grow an answer and there is no reason to rush. Shall I ask for guidance and help – I'll miss. Shall I jump to conclusions – I'll miss. I must use everything I am “gifted” with, I must do everything I do, learn the lessons and wait.

Rodica

Susan Shwartz PhD wrote:
There isn't much time in life, but there surely is -some- time to smell the roses. The trick is becoming aware of that, making the time, and enjoying the best roses possible for as long as you can.

John Covey wrote:
I think it best said by the Author Kahlil Gibran in the book "The Prophet" - On Work

You work that you may keep pace with the earth and the soul of the earth.

For to be idle is to become a stranger unto the seasons, and to step out of life's procession, that marches in majesty and proud submission towards the infinite.

When you work you are a flute through whose heart the whispering of the hours turns to music.

Which of you would be a reed, dumb and silent, when all else sings together in unison?

Always you have been told that work is a curse and labor a misfortune.

But I say to you that when you work you fulfill a part of earth's furthest dream, assigned to you when that dream was born, And in keeping yourself with labor you are in truth loving life, And to love life through labor is to be intimate with life's inmost secret.

But if you in your pain call birth an affliction and the support of the flesh a curse written upon your brow, then I answer that naught but the sweat of your brow shall wash away that which is written.

You have been told also that life is darkness, and in your weariness you echo what was said by the weary.

And I say that life is indeed darkness save when there is urge,
And all urge is blind save when there is knowledge,
And all knowledge is vain save when there is work,
And all work is empty save when there is love;
And when you work with love you bind yourself to yourself, and to one another, and to God.

And what is it to work with love?

It is to weave the cloth with threads drawn from your heart, even as if your beloved were to wear that cloth.

It is to build a house with affection, even as if your beloved were to dwell in that house.

It is to sow seeds with tenderness and reap the harvest with joy, even as if your beloved were to eat the fruit.

It is to charge all things you fashion with a breath of your own spirit, And to know that all the blessed dead are standing about you and watching.

Often have I heard you say, as if speaking in sleep, "He who works in marble, and finds the shape of his own soul in the stone, is nobler than he who ploughs the soil.

And he who seizes the rainbow to lay it on a cloth in the likeness of man, is more than he who makes the sandals for our feet."

But I say, not in sleep but in the over-wakefulness of noontide, that the wind speaks not more sweetly to the giant oaks than to the least of all the blades of grass;
And he alone is great who turns the voice of the wind into a song made sweeter by his own loving.

Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.

For if you bake bread with indifference, you bake a bitter bread that feeds but half man's hunger.

And if you grudge the crushing of the grapes, your grudge distils a poison in the wine.

And if you sing though as angels, and love not the singing, you muffle man's ears to the voices of the day and the voices of the night.

Colleen Norris wrote:
Life is whatever I create it to be.
I choose to look back at the end of this life having lived.
Take the time to enjoy this life. It's all that you are guarenteed.

M. Joyce McMenamin wrote:
Only the good die young.

{So they say}

Vinod Kad wrote:

Life is a tremendously beautiful gift to enjoy. But it is us humans who impose things like hard work, labour, ambitions, goals upon our lives.

But you may argue that we need to labour to survive. Thats is not labour. Thats natural. Thats what a hungry animal or bird does. Thats not labour.

Now you may further argue that if we do not labour who will make beautiful gardens, temples, paintings, inventions etc.. I would say that all the beautiful paintings, inventions, temples, buildings, palaces etc. were made out of one's love or passion or interest for these things.

Remember buildings like Taj Mahal, Khajuraho Temples, Mughal Gardens; Inventions like Radio, Television, Electricity etc. were not made as a compulsion of Labour.

So if you are yourself sure and unconditionally / totally accept Death then you should immediately drop concepts like labour, effort, goals from your life.

But the problem is neither I nor You and most of others ACCEPT that our death is certain. We just TALK and WRITE that death is imminent. But we never experiment it.

Perhaps death is the most TALKED / WRITTEN about and the least EXPERIMENTED subject in this world.

Whoever will dare to EXPERIMENT with death, will surely drop all labour from life. But that does not mean that he will not live here. He will live much much relaxed and joyful life than us. For example Raman, Buddha, Nisaragdatta etc.

James D'Argantel Odrowaz wrote:

Proverbs are the collected errors of humankind.

So always take then with a pinch of salt... and who can categorically state that death is the end of life?

Annette Hope Brewster wrote:
Is death the end of life or merely a new beginning?

As for my life, my labor pays for the luxuries I enjoy in life, such as helocopter rides, hiking, backpacking, water skiing, ski diving, etc., none of which I can do for free --

I had a near death experience when I was 21 and learned then life is way too short to be a work-a-holic; my time at work is 150% of my efforts, my company shouldn't expect anything more from me, as long as I produce greater than my quota.

Rajshree Mathur Ghosh wrote:

Hi
I whole heartedly agree with you. God has been very unkind to mankind . He created such a beautiful word, Sun, Stars, Breeze, Valleys, Flowers and Love and so much more. And thud..bang it all ends with death. If only someone would feed me and give me ready made clothes and a lovely house on the beach......I would not work a day. Then life would comfort, luxury, beauty, freedon, happiness and all that I intend to do with it...But alas....Labour is an integral part of life. So thats how mankind must earn his/her right to life! By working hard. Death....Is where this beautiful story ends. No regrets about the Labour. I am fine with it. One has to pass time (life) some how. So better is working and being useful to other humanbeings.

Rajshree

Andrew Scharf [LION] wrote:
Death is not the end of life; it is the end of the duration of the physical form allocated to us from the moment we manifest on the material plane. The soul cannot be touched by fire, water, wind, heat, or cold. In a body we experience many things; and this is the pleasure and curse of the body.

What someone chooses to do with his or her body is a question of choice. Sometimes those choices are difficult and challenging but there is always choice. The 'labour' of life is series of lessons to teach the soul awareness and the 'meaning of life'. We can get caught up in a multitude of activities like children experimenting with new toys. Toys titillate but they can never satisfy ultimately.

Because of the roles we play, there are diverse levels of responsibility and obligations. However, we need to have the perception that every task is filled with joy. Taking out the trash does not appear to be joyous, but with the right frame of mind, we can make it so. It is what one sage referred to as a question of consciousness.

Having said this, when we are physically present knowing that life is a gift, we should not waste time. Time is a non-renewable resource. At first, we believe it is infinite. We have this belief because, i fact, we really are. However, our bodies are not. The body can be used for a multitude of activities. Engage in ones which bring peace of mind as well as pleasure.

One day the 'hotel keeper' will come and ask us to check out of the hotel. That day arrives for everyone. There are no extensions for VIPs. Big Boss is very democratic on this. Therefore, appreciate, give thanks, and dwell in the state of grace which is the birthright of us all.

Above all, one should have no regrets. Remember, life is a journey, not a destination.

from Andrew Scharf

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