There is the fact of death. What am I to do? How do I approach it? My approach to the fact is important, not my fear, anxiety, memories, whether there is reincarnation or not, whether there is a continuity or not, and so on. How do I approach this extraordinary fact? I look at the fact and I think about the fact – that is what we do – and my thinking is the result of my fears, remembrances, hopes, despairs, loneliness. That is the background from which I think. Now, to look at the fact, can I die to the background? To understand the fact, to live so that the fact gives me the intensity, vitality, energy to go into it, I must die to my background of fear, hope, despair and remembrances.