In Episode 88 of Insights, we delve into a captivating quote from "John Wick 4." The quote, "Those who cling to death live," triggers a profound exploration of fear, attachment, and the essence of existence.

To be frank, I never thought I’d be quoting from a John Wick movie, but here we are. Just recently I sat to watch John Wick 4 and in the penultimate scene (no spoilers here) John says to his dear friend, “ those who cling to death live”, his friend responds with, “…and those who cling to life die.”

What does this even mean?

Let’s go to first half of this mind shifting soul stirring string of words. “Those who cling to death live.” Clearly this is just my interpretation and I’m sure many of you would have a different slant or purview into this fascinating life insight.

Put simply, it is about being unafraid of death. How do we become unafraid? There are a couple of thought points I would love to share.

1. Practically every near death experience (NDE) that has been studied, researched and categorised, show us that when the NDEr comes back to full waking consciousness, any fear of death has been completely vanquished! In fact, many near death experiencers actual state that in death they were unspeakably more alive than being trapped in a body living a physical life. Fascinating!!! Great to know, but do we believe it?

2. Our beliefs are designed to bring us comfort. Beliefs aren’t facts. Beliefs are convenient assumptions we have about anything we are aware of. For what it’s worth, I take great comfort in believing that life is not just living until the age of eighty or ninety and then it ends. I believe that life is not just limited to the experience of our personalities and attached bodies but that life is who or what we actually are. CS Lewis said that “we do not have a soul, we are a soul, what we have is a body.”

In other words, life is not only something we experience. Life is what we actually are. Life is consciousness itself. It is beyond the dualistic ego mind and beyond our level’s of comprehension. To me the transition into death is a very exciting one. This is what clinging to death means to me.

By being excited by death we are not afraid to live. Being unafraid to live means we are living with a continual awareness of the joy at we even exist!!! As at the time of this writing, in two days’ time, I am running my 27th half marathon. I was asked just this morning what I expect my time to be. I have been running for nearly 30 years, and for 25 of those years I used to put so much pressure on myself to run a personal best, and if I didn’t or if I didn’t come close I would be so disappointed.

I seemed to have forgotten something really important…..that I can run this thing!! So when I was asked what my expectations are, I said to have a fun day, and celebrate a healthy and vibrant life so far!!! Now my running events are celebrations! Now before some of you may think, oh Joe its because your getting old and you just can’t run as fast!! My last half marathon, two months ago was only 3 minutes slower than my all time personal best!!!

To read more visit ⁠www.joepane.com.au/blog ⁠

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