Life and Death in Earnestness

Life and Death in Earnestness

"Earnestness is the path of Nirvana; thoughtlessness the path of death. Those who are in earnest do not die; those who are thoughtless are as if dead already." (Bk II, Chpt II [p54])

"A bhikshu who delights in earnestness, who looks with fear on thoughtlessness, cannot fall away from his perfect state - he is close to Nirvana." (Bk II, Chpt II [p55])

When I first read this I was slightly confused, because I thought immediately of the teachings (or at least what I had gathered) that the idea was you want to die and be done, not die and live and die and live (reincarnation, in short), so Nirvana being equated with not dying and thoughtlessness with death seemed slightly backwards. Then I realized I had to think of it not in corporeal terms, but rather in terms of the soul. This different view was easily reconcilable for me with the Nirvana and living half; when living in earnestness, close to Nirvana, the soul lives on forever in it's perfect state, close to Nirvana, etc. However when I tried to apply it to the thoughtless - dead - reincarnation part, I still had some trouble. If a way to get out of the cycle of reincarnation is to live earnestly, then thoughtlessness keeps one in the reincarnation cycle. Those who are thoughtless, though, are dead already, and so in this cycle they are in a perpetual death, never living in life. Is life therefore, inaptly named? In this system, do we not "live" until we die? I know the point is to get out of the cycle, but this seems to deny any value to living, except as a way out of living... Or maybe I am reading too much into this. Your thoughts / help?