I. mediteer -2

What actually happens in death?

At death the spirit - that glow of life that spreads over the external form - begins to shrink away from the outer shell, and to move back to its origin, to its source.

If we slowly and gradually lower the wick of a lamp, the light that has spread throughout the room will diminish and it will become darker. If we continues to lower the wick still more the flame will become smaller and smaller and will move closer to the lamp itself and we will finally be enveloped in total darkness.

In the same way, the light of life - the spirit of life which has permeated every nook and cranny of the physical body - begins to shrink, slowly and imperceptibly, until it finally returns to its origin. And then it becomes the seed, the atom for its journey into a new and fresh life

-

It is shrinking...

that makes a man realize that death is approaching.

That he is dying. That what he thought was life, is slipping away from him. His hands and feet grow numb, his breathing becomes difficult, his eyes no longer see and his ears no longer hear the sound of life. His limbs, his senses, his entire body functioned because of this unseen but potent connection with the spirit.

And now the spirit is returning to its origin.

The body is only a physical entity.

And now that the spirit has departed...

it becomes dead.

Lifeless.

~osho~
the long the short...
(1967?) - ch.5