Accepting Death

"Death can come at any moment. You could die this afternoon; you could die tomorrow morning; you could die on your way to work; you could die in your sleep. Most of us try to avoid the sense that death can come at any time, but its timing is unknown to us. Can we live each day as if it were our last? Can we relate to one another as if there were no tomorrow?...

Whether or not enlightenment is possible at the moment of death, the practices that prepare one for this possibility also bring one closer to the bone of life...

In accepting death as inevitable, we don't label it as a good thing or a bad thing. As one of my teachers once said to me, "Death happens. It is just death, and how we meet it is up to us...

Buddhism offers many practices and insights for working skillfully and compassionately with suffering, pain, dying, failure, loss, and grief — the stuff of what St. John of the Cross has called "the lucky dark." That great Christian saint recognized that suffering can be fortunate because, without it, there is no possibility for maturation. For years the lucky dark has been the atmosphere that lends clarity to my life, a life that had seen death as an enemy, but was to discover death as a teacher and guide."

— Joan Halifax Roshi, Being with Dying

“Death is inevitable. I, too, will die.”
Repeat this statement to yourself.
On the inbreath, “Death is inevitable.”
On the outbreath, “I, too, will die.”

When the mind wanders away from this contemplation of the inevitability of death, call it back. Do not lose the opportunity to realize that you cannot avoid your death. You might resist by drifting in thought or turning to fantasy. Bring your attention back to this contemplation—that you will die,that each being precious to you will die, that each person and each creature now on earth will die... Watch what the mind may do to escape this very simple fact.

Death is inevitable. Can you face this truth? Can you feel it in your body, your blood, your bones; can you know it in your breath? The inevitability of death pervades every cell in your body. Please do not forget this. Death is inevitable."

-- Joan Halifax Roshi