A couple nights ago my friend, Najla, was sharing a story about a friend of hers who is living with a terminal illness and how that experience has allowed this friend to actually live for the first time instead of just go through the motions in this old habitual game we call life.  I immediately thought of the 5th Klesha, abhinivesah – translated often as fear of death or clinging to bodily life.  When I retired to my room I picked up my copy of the Sutras and settled on 2:9, which Satchidananda translates as:

Clinging to life, flowing by it’s own potency [due to past experience] exists even in the wise.

It is not my intent, here in this blog to rephrase Satchinanda’s comments, or anyone else’s commments.  It is also not my intent to give profound insights as I don’t have many of those.  I am forever a student of yoga and would simply like to start a conversation with you so that I may continue to learn.  So, what surprised me most in this sutra is parenthetical  phrase – due to past experience.  What exactly does past experience have to do with fear of dying?  What memories exist in our minds that we may not recognize or be present to that have us gripping to our lives?  Is that related to our Western obsession with our bodies, the material, the Prakriti? If we create a clearing, move past that and can agree that death may be celebrated, from where does the clinging emerge?

Have a beautiful Sunday.  I have some yoga to practice, a wonderful meal to enjoy that was prepared for me, luggage to pack, and an incredible man to embrace later this evening.  I guess I can see why I would cling to this life.