Death may be a process we cannot escape. It is called a process because the explanations for it remain impossible for people to accept in full. Ideas about cultivating immortality, attaining enlightenment, or becoming a Buddha are all extensions of these incomplete explanations. Every region has its own local legends, but whether any of them are true cannot be proven. The saying that belief makes something real, while disbelief makes it unreal, has long circulated among the people, as if it gives each person something to lean on. When it comes to death, is the truth we uphold in our subjective minds accurate enough? Can objective analysis really hold up? After much thought and repeated consideration, I have decided to share the dreams I've had over the years. The reason I thought it over so many times is that there are parts I can no longer distinguish as dreams or reality. So I found an excuse to convince myself: dreams and reality together make up a complete self. As for which part weighs more, there's no need to probe further. Isn't there a saying that life is like a dream, and a dream is like life?
Now, back to death. Even if death is merely a process, we are still terribly afraid of it, even though we know this. Or perhaps it's more accurate to say that it's very hard to accept, that we don't want to accept it. Objectively speaking, it is an inevitable law of nature, one that we who live in the present cannot change.
