/lit/ - Literature

To live: is to believe your life is a thing of possibilities to be expanded
To begin to die: is to belive your life is a finite bounded and complete thing to be saved and preserved

I am reminded of the Aghori sect, an honestly spooky group of Hindu yogis who follow a fringe doctrine of Hinduism that some consider heretical. Their beliefs state that one must expose oneself to what the human body finds disgusting and disturbing, rotting corpses, filth, waste, in order to see the illusion that is death and achieve higher spiritual insight. They make sure to

"...have as their objects a corpse one or two or three days old, swollen up, blue-black in colour, full of corruption; a corpse eaten by crows, etc.; a framework of bones; flesh hanging from it, bespattered with blood, held together by the sinews; without flesh and blood, but still held together by the sinews; bones scattered in all direction; bleached and resembling shells; heaped together after the lapse of years; weathered and crumbled to dust.
At the end of each of these contemplations there follows the conclusion: "This body of mine also has this nature, has this destiny, cannot escape it."