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Preparing for Death
The pace of our lives is so hectic that the last thing we have time to think of is death. We smother our secret fears of impermanence by surrounding ourselves with more and more goods, … things, …comforts …All our time and energy is exhausted simply maintaining them. …And so our lives drift on, unless a serious illness or disaster shakes us out of our stupor.
…Our myopic focus on this life and this life only, is the greatest deception, the source of the modern world's bleak and destructive materialism. No one talks about death and no one talks about the afterlife, because people are made to believe that such talk will only thwart our so-called "progress" in the world.
Yet if our deepest desire is truly to live and go on living, why do we blindly insist that death is the end? Why not at least try and explore the possibility that there may be a life after? Why, if we are as pragmatic as we claim, don't we begin to ask ourselves seriously: Where does our real future lie? After all, no one lives longer than a hundred years. And after that there stretches the whole of eternity, unaccounted for ….
In the West, we are doing all we can for the care and comfort of the body during
illness and dying, up to the moment of death. Many rely on their faith and
spiritual pursuits primarily for living a "good life" and for
cultivating a hope and trust in Spirit for our continued journey on the other
side of the doorway into death. But only very recently in the West have we
become aware enough to imagine how we might also cultivate or support
after-death preparation for the "I" who continues into the next world.
START
HERE:
Highly
recommended: Deathing: An
Intelligent Alternative for the Final Moments of Life,
byAnya Foos-Graber.
As we open ourselves to understand and accept death as a natural part of life,
we will begin to plan more heartfully for a "good death." A good
death is one that allows us time for all our forgiving and being forgiven, for
our coming to a sense of peace and the fullness of love and acceptance in our
relationships. Over time, too, we will come to recognize as part of this
process the essential practice of deathing. Foos-Graber defines deathing
as "conscious dying." In the Foreward, the near-death
researcher, Kenneth Ring, says,
Deathing
... is dying that is not left to chance or contingency. As a concept,
deathing is, of course, analogous to birthing -- the process of giving
birth. Deathing, too, is like giving birth -- only to yourself. It
demands conscious participation and full awareness if it is to be done
correctly and beautifully, as the ancient wisdom tells us. ... This
manual is designed both for the individual who desires to practice deathing as
well as for the friend who wishes to assist the process. ... [T]hese
exercises are meant to be practiced and mastered before one is
in any immediate or obvious danger of dying, so that the moment of death,
whenever it does come, is one of conditioned deathing, not adventitious dying.
in
which we may slip into this transcendent process fully alive to its glorious
embrace, fully aware of its being a process for which we can prepare ourselves
and be supported by those on both sides of the Doorway.
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PDD Pages
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FEAR
OF DEATH AND DYING
SUICIDE
CRISIS HELP
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=NEW=
GREEN
BURIAL
AND
HOME
FUNERALS
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PREPARATION
FOR YOUR OWN PASSING: STAGE 1
PREPARATION,
STAGE 2: THE YOU
WHO
DOESN'T CROAK
AFTERDEATH
CARE
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