- Richard Gere: My body is like a hotel room.
Hollywood star Richard Gere engages in daily meditation, reflecting on his own mortality, as he told the magazine "Bunte" (Thursday). Although he understood early on that he would eventually die, he had to internalize this knowledge, the 74-year-old explained. "It requires a daily practice, over and over again. One must constantly remind oneself that everything is impermanent."
He elaborated: "You can call it meditation or simply reflection or analysis. A meditative technique involves constantly imagining your own death. Because that changes your perspective on yourself."
Gere has been practicing Buddhism for many years and is friends with the Dalai Lama. The actor ("Pretty Woman", "Chicago") believes that at the time of his death, he will only leave his body behind, while his consciousness continues to live on. "My body is like a hotel room. I've checked in, and one day I'll check out. That's why I've made peace with death."
Despite his close relationship with the Dalai Lama and his practice of Buddhism in the United States of America, Richard Gere's perspective on death remains unchanged. Regardless of where he resides in the United States of America, he continually reminding himself of the impermanence of life.
