Closer to death

Every breath we take, we are one breath closer to death. ~ Radhanath Swami

Live wisely

Even death is not to be feared by one who has lived wisely.

Death - A beginning

"For a devotee death is not the end but just the beginning. Beginning of entrance into a realm of eternity." ~ Radhanath Swami

Unnatural life

Real question

Butterfly

"What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly."
~ Richard Bach

Bereavement

Bereavement can force you to look at your life directly, compelling you to find a purpose in it where there may not have been one before. When suddenly you find yourself alone after the death of someone you love, it can feel as if you are being given a new life and are being asked: “What will you do with this life? And why do you wish to continue living?”

My heartfelt advice to those in the depths of grief and despair after losing someone they dearly loved is to pray for help and strength and grace. Pray that you will survive and discover the richest possible meaning to the new life you now find yourself in. Be vulnerable and receptive, be courageous and patient. Above all, look into your life to find ways of sharing your love more deeply with others now.

~ Sogyal Rinpoche

Limitation of sight

"Life is eternal; and love is immortal; and death is only a horizon; and a horizon is nothing save the limit of our sight." ~ Rossiter W. Raymond

Attitude toward Death

Live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart.
Trouble no one about his religion.
Respect others in their views
and demand that they respect yours.
Love your life, perfect your life,
beautify all things in your life.
Seek to make your life long
and of service to your people.
Prepare a noble death song for the day
when you go over the great divide.
Always give a word or sign of salute when meeting
or passing a friend, or even a stranger, if in a lonely place.
Show respect to all people, but grovel to none.
When you rise in the morning, give thanks for the light,
for your life, for your strength.
Give thanks for your food and for the joy of living.
If you see no reason to give thanks,
the fault lies in yourself.
When your time comes to die, be not like those
whose hearts are filled with fear of death,
so that when their time comes they weep and pray
for a little more time to live their lives over again
in a different way.
Sing your death song, and die like a hero going home.

~ The Teaching of Tecumseh

On death

"You would know the secret of death. But how shall you find it unless you seek it in the heath of life? The owl whose night-bound eyes are blind unto the day cannot unveil the mystery of light. If you would indeed behold the spirit of death, open your heart wide unto the body of life. For life and death are one, even as the river and sea are one." Excerpted from 'The Prophet' by Kahlil Gibran

The dead have peace...

The dead they sleep a long, long sleep;
The dead they rest, and their rest is deep;
The dead have peace, but the living weep.
~Samuel Hoffenstein

Peace my heart...

Peace, my heart, let the time for the parting be sweet.
Let it not be a death but completeness.
Let love melt into memory and pain into songs.
Let the flight through the sky end in the folding of the wings over the nest.
Let the last touch of your hands be gentle like the flower of the night.
Stand still, O Beautiful End, for a moment, and say your last words in silence.
I bow to you and hold up my lamp to light you on your way.
~ Rabindranath Tagore

Impermanence

“There is no place on earth where death cannot find us—even if we constantly twist our heads about in all directions as in a dubious and suspect land... If there were any way of sheltering from death's blows—/ am not the man to recoil from it... But it is madness to think that you can succeed...


Men come and they go and they trot and they dance, and never a word about death. All well and good. Yet when death does come—to them, their wives, their children, their friends - catching them unawares and unprepared, then what storms of passion overwhelm them, what cries, what fury, what despair!...

To begin depriving death of its greatest advantage over us, let us adopt a way clean contrary to that common one; let us deprive death of its strangeness, let us frequent it, let us get used to it; let us have nothing more often in mind than death... We do not know where death awaits us: so let us wait for it everywhere. To practice death is to practice freedom. A man who has learned how to die has unlearned how to be a slave.” ~ Montaige

Excerpted from "The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying” by Sogyal Rinpoche

My religion

"My religion is to live and die without any regret" ~ Milarepa (one of the most widely known Tibetan Saints)

The life cycle

“You were dead, and He revived you;
then He will cause you to die, and
He will revive you; then unto
Him shall ye return.”
The Qur'an, 2:26

Life and death

"For life and death are one, even as the river and the sea are one" ~ Kahlil Gibran

Innocence of death

When the childlike innocence of Death was felt,
The scenario became all appealing.
But gradually,
The ‘Preacher’ also became infidel.
Excerpted from 'The Endless End' by Jatan Raj Jain

An inevitable occurrence

Enthroning queen Death is,
A deep conspiracy of assembly of life,
An inevitable occurrence,
When, where and how,
Depends on make-up of life.

Excerpted from 'The Endless End' by Jatan Raj Jain

Death is not...

Death is not the departure of life,
Rather a necessary refueling of the vehicle of life it is.

Death is not divorce of life,
Hearty relationship of life it is.

Death is not the absence of life,
Is life’s nature, a co-existence?

Excerpted from 'The Endless End' by Jatan Raj Jain

Messiah Death

"Life is deep devotee of Messiah Death,
Is benefitted by its very visualization."

Excerpted from 'The Endless End' by Jatan Raj Jain