One time a few years ago i had very strong thought. The mishna tells us if one finds himself in a situation of avirah think about his father.....untill the mishna says if all else fails think of the day of death. and you know there are times when ill be battling with this yetezer hara and ill think of the day of death and it doesnt work either.

but then i tried somthing, it came to me on rosh hashana durning davening, i decided not just to think of the day of death in a superficial way, i used my imagination to the limit and i played a whole scene in my head. (i was in israel at the time) and i just heard the announcement for my own funeral, i went to the funeral home to attend "my own" funeral, i slowy walk in the dimly lit funeral home and i see a body lying on the slab, my own body, people are crying etc. as i approch closer i see maggots filling my eye socets ect.

NOW i know your all thinking "man this guy is morbid and insane" but i tell you at that moment when i pictured myself on that slab the reality of how fake and limited this world really is and how trivial this yter hara really is, it was such an amazing feeling of clear headiness and at that time no Yetezer hara in the world could have bothered me.

sometimes i feel that it really does help when we truly belive that WE WILL DIE and all the garbage in this world will be gone, it helps me keep things in perspective. to tell you guys the turth i have gone to funeral home and lied down on the slab where they put the dead body and pictued my own death, i even wanted to buy a pair of tachrechim, but they were to expensive (p.s. dying is not cheap.) never the less this is one thing that helps me is keeping the concept of death vivid to create a realztion of this fake world and the stupid yezter hara, it can assit in dispersing his smoke screen of lies and deception



Peace out, and keep on fighting!

Wow...that sounds intense. It sounds like the kinda thing that can be helpful as an extreme weapon, but save it for absolute emergencies...

Unfortunately, this mindset is not something you can successfully keep up. And if the Y"H wants to get a person, he just shleps him out of that realization.
That's why if you'll take a look around the site, even those who use the torah approach focus mainly on the things that LEAD to falls, and not so much on the actual burning taiva. The vast majority of nisyonos we have, are ones we could have avoided had we wanted to.
As I posted on Shlomo's thread, we also have to know how to fight him head on. Because he can attack us even outside our homes. But the main thing is to keep him out in the first place.

Wow.  Interesting imaging.

Funny, but in my experience in various hypnosis-meditation based therapies, one common question for the end of each image is, "and THEN what?"  If you apply that to lying on the slab, I hope you'll get to some point where the "next" means moving up to Shamayim etc.  (Ch'V some OTHER place!)  You might find a different perspective from that "next" place. And the place after that, and the place after that etc.

I only mention this to point out that, sure, we come from dust and return, but that's only our GUF.  When you picture yourself lying on the slab (yes, a little strong and graphic... ouch), what happens when you think about what comes after THAT? 

Just a thought.  Congrats for finding stuff that's working for you.