What do you mean by life being a long drawn-out process of dying?

Question: THE FIFTH QUESTION: YOU SAID THAT THIS LIFE WE LIVE IS NOT LIFE AT ALL, BUT A LONG DRAWN-OUT PROCESS OF DYING. WHAT DO YOU MEAN TO CONVEY BY THIS? It is quite true that what we call life is not life. If it really were life how could it end in death? Life and death are two contradictory things so how then can death be the fulfillment of life? Death is the end of birth, not of life. And because death comes at the end don't think it only starts at the end. It is present in birth itself. It starts the very day one is born. After birth we die every moment. When this process of dying has been completed we call it death. What was in birth as a seed appears at the end in its fully-ripened form.

Question: SOMEONE ASKED OSHO'S VIEWS ON DEATH AND DYING. There is nothing as sure as death. Where there is life, there is bound to be death. He who bears not this fact in mind, wastes life, whereas he who knows this truth, obtains that which is immortal. I do not feel depressed at anybody's death, because there is no need to feel anything about it. However, it is a matter of sorrow, no doubt, if I see a life wasted. We have not to grieve after a dead body, but over a wasted life. You know, King Janak was called 'videh', i.e., without or beyond the body. Once, a young minister of his asked him, 'Your Excellency! How can you be considered without a body, when you do have a physical body? The king smiled but said nothing. After a few days, however, the king invited the minister for lunch.

Question: Sixth question: Osho, what is death? Death does not exist. Death is a lie—an outright lie—that has never happened and never can. That which is, is forever. Forms change. You mistake the change of form for death. Before lament melted into the ecstasy of pain, it was already there. Before my tongue found songs of sorrow, their music was there. If I am but water and clay in the keeping of dawn and dusk, who then was there before space and time? This cosmos dwelt already in Your imagining; both worlds existed before the command “Be!” was uttered. If the search is true, questions do arise— but steadfast certainty stood before the sway of doubt. In your thought there was your own perfect reflection; your perfection was before my trial began. My eyes beheld in the imprint of Your steps the beauty of galaxies—before the galaxies.

Question: Osho, in the Dwarka camp you said that meditation and samadhi are a voluntary, conscious entry into the state of death, through which the illusion of death dissolves. Then the question arises: to whom does the illusion of death occur? Does it occur to the body or to consciousness? Since the body is only an instrument, it cannot have delusive awareness; and there is no reason for consciousness to be deluded. Then what is the cause and basis of this event of delusion? So remember: the arrangement of cremating the dead is not merely to vacate the house; there is something more precious in it. The one who has departed cannot believe he has died. How could he believe it? He finds himself exactly as he was—no difference at all has occurred within him.

Question: Osho, I have two questions. The first is this: meditation, awareness—these states seem to remain only so long as the body and mind are healthy. When the body and mind become dull or weak, all this seems to disappear. And before death most people do become dull—both in body and in mind. So just before dying a person loses so much control over himself that none of these methods seem to work. Which would mean that in the end even a meditator or one who tries to be aware will end up just like someone who has done none of this. No. A few things need to be understood. In the beginning, when you start moving toward meditation, then the conditions of body and mind do influence it—because from where you start, you are nothing more than body and mind.