What can death teach us?

A good death doesn't necessarily mean someone in her 80's passing in her own home surrounded by her loved ones.  A bad death doesn't necessarily mean someone in his 20's dying alone of a terminal cancer.   

Spiritually speaking, it is the quality of our consciousness at the moment of transitioning which determines how we die.  Do we transition in peace?  Or do we transition in fear?  Do we transition in love?  Or do we transition in anger?  Do we still cling? Or are we ready to let go? The state of our mind is important.  

We are encouraged to face our mortality as an opportunity to become more present and loving, an opportunity for emotional and spiritual healing, for self realization.  

If we have any unfinished business, we don't have to wait until our last breath to reconcile or forgive, or let go. We have these opportunities every single day.  We can start with ourselves.  Love and Forgive.  Love yourself and forgive yourself first....then others. Because we cannot know how to love others until we know how to love ourselves first.   

 Quotes from spiritual teachers

Marcus Aurelius:

"An end to be approached in purity, in serenity, in acceptance, in peaceful unity with what must be."

Ram Dass: 

"Death is completely safe. It's like taking off a tight shoe... It is not something we should fear. Just keep opening your heart." 

"The body dies, the thinking mind dies, attachments fall away. But the deep love in the heart, the love of the soul goes on... When someone you love dies, the love continues."  

"Death has been hidden and medicalized in our society. Doctors often consider death a failure of their job. But death is a natural transition, not a failure." 

"Each person should die in the way that feels right to them." 

When someone died, RD would say: "They have completed their work in this life." 

Eckhart Tolle:

"As long as the egoic mind is running your life, you cannot truly be at ease... Since the ego is a derived sense of self, it needs to identify with external things. It needs to be both defended and fed constantly.  The most common ego identifications have to do with possessions, the work you do, social status and recognition, knowledge and education, physical appearance, special abilities, relationships, personal and family history, belief systems, and often also political, nationalistic, racial, religious and other collective identifications.  None of these is you.  

Do you find this frightening?  Or is it a relief to know this?  All of these things you will have to relinquish sooner or later. Perhaps you find it as yet hard to believe... You will know it at the latest when you feel death approaching. Death is a stripping away of all that is not you.  The secret of life is to "die before you die" - and find that there is no death."  

Sadhguru:

"Death is not the end of life. Death is simply the end of the body. If you have lived with a very deep identification with the physical body, the more you will struggle with death. Only when you confront your mortality... does the longing to go beyond become genuine." 

The Bhagavad Gita: 

"Our real Self never dies, for it is never born; it is eternal." 

St. Francis of Assisi: 

"For it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life."

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What is an End-of-life doula? 

How can Mindfulness help in this process ? 

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To reach Emily:  ComfortNPeace23@gmail.com  or  (970) 460-6575