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Welcome to Death Knells

The Death of Fearing Death

This site shares Life-affirming meditations
that heal misconception about Death.
Living beautifully and dying beautifully,
Embrace Death as Birth
​into limitless Life Awareness.





The "conscious Self" of each of us, as we call it,—

the empirical, the supraliminal Self, as I should prefer to say,—

does not comprise the whole of the consciousness

 or of the faculty within us. 

There exists a more comprehensive consciousness,

 a profounder faculty, 

which for the most part remains potential 

only so far as regards the life of earth,

 but from which the consciousness and the faculty of earth-life 

are mere selections, 

and which reasserts itself in its plenitude 

after the liberating change of death.



F.W.H. Myers

Human Personality and its Survival of Bodily Death 










The certain prospect of death 

could sweeten every life 

with a precious and fragrant drop of levity--

and now you strange apothecary souls 

have turned it into an ill-tasting drop of poison

 that makes the whole of life repulsive.


Friedrich Nietzsche



"If you speak the truth," he said,

 "I lose nothing when I lose my life. 

I am not much more than an animal

 which has been taught to dance by blows

 and a few meager morsels."   

 "Not at all," said Zarathustra,

 "you have made danger your calling;

 there is nothing contemptible in that.

 Now you perish by your calling:

 therefore I will bury you 

with my own hands."  

  When Zarathustra had said this 

the dying one did not reply further; 

but he moved his hand as if he sought 

the hand of Zarathustra in gratitude. 


Friedrich Nietzsche

Thus Spake Zarathustra










Every life is different, 

but every death is the same. 

We live with others.

 We die alone. 

And what is important to this story 

is that the moment we die 

is not the same as the moment 

we are perceived as dead.

 Our lives end before others notice,

 and the time that spans that distance 

is the inverse of the grief your loved ones will suffer

 when you leave them behind.


David R. Dow

Things I've Learned From Dying







There is no life without death,

 there is no renewal without the dying of the old.

 Dying is not blotting out, 

it is transition.

 For it has ever been and is,

 even in materiality, 

a reciprocal world.



Edgar Cayce

Beyond Death 




Whereas during our physical life,

 the immediate contemplation of our birth 

can never rise up before our soul, 

the moment of death stands before our soul 

throughout our life between death and a new birth, 

if we only look upon it spiritually.

 We must realize that we then

 look upon the moment of death from the other side.

 Here, on earth,

 death has a terrifying aspect 

only because we look upon it as a kind of dissolution,

 as an end.

 But when we look back 

upon the moment of death from the other side,

 from the spiritual side,

then death continually appears to us

 as a victory of the spirit, 

as the Spirit that is extricating itself from the physical. 

It then appears as the greatest, 

most beautiful and significant event.


Rudolf Steiner

The Moment of Death and the Period Thereafter










Your father 

will not be your father on the other side,

 but a friend 

who played the role of the father over here


Emmet Fox

The Emmet Fox Reader









In this hour of joy it is not proper to grieve.  

The goal, so hard to win, 

which for many aeons I have wished for,

 now at last is no longer far away. 

 When that is won,

 no earth or water, fire, wind or ether is present; 

 unchanging bliss beyond all objects of the senses, 

a peace which none can take away,

the highest thing there is; 

 and when you hear of that 

and know that no becoming mars it

 and nothing ever there can pass away—

how then, is there room for grief in your minds?


The Buddha, at death,

 speaking to his followers









Death does not exist. 

What you call “death” 

is merely a process of Re-Identification


Neale Donald Walsch

 What God Said







Death , 

as the saints , sages , and near - death experiencers tell us , 

is only a shift from sensory awareness of our physical body

 to a more complete and more subtle awareness

 of our ever - present energy body .

 Our energy body is constantly with us .

 It animates , controls , and continuously creates our physical body .

 Moreover , as the saints and sages tell us ,

 our energy body contains what is most important , 

most characteristic , most essential ; 

the things that give meaning to who and what we are : 

our thoughts , our feelings , our dreams , 

our knowledge , our memories , our enduring character traits . 

When we die ,

 these essential aspects of who we are 

continue to exist where they have always existed — 

in our nonlocal energy body .



Joseph Selbie

The Physics of God











Life is a struggle, but death is only a rest 

for those who have gone through the struggle of life. 

For those who did not live,

 death brings nothing but fear.

 For one who is alive,

 death simply does not exist.

 It is out of the struggles of life 

that a restful death is earned.

 It is earned through living.

 Therefore, the one who dies a death that is earned 

attains deathlessness.

 Like a Jesus, like a Socrates. 

Earn death –

 that is the only essential challenge of life.


Osho

Love Letters to Life





The angel of death 

can teach us to live every day 

as if it is the last day of our lives ,

 as if there may be no tomorrow .

 We can begin each day by saying ,

 “ I am awake , I see the sun .

 I am going to give my gratitude to the sun 

and to everything and everyone , 

because I am still alive . 

One more day to be myself . 

” That is the way I see life ,

 that is what the angel of death taught me — 

to be completely open 

, to know that there is nothing to be afraid of .



Don Miguel Ruiz

  The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom







The most helpful person 

is one who is comfortable with death,

 with groundlessness,

 and with not knowing.

 Like a strong rider on a frisky horse, 

this is someone who can ride

 on top of whatever’s happening 

without being thrown by it 

and without trying to fix it.

 Expect the unexpected.

 Learn to appreciate silence and uncertainty.



Andrw Holecek

Preparing to Die




Reading 5488-1


Q: What advice as to how to take up life again? 


A: In the application of self to the vicissitudes of life—

in the midst of life one is in the midst of death,

 for death is but the beginning of life, 

as life is but the beginning of an opportunity

 to manifest that as is innately built 

within the soul of an individual itself.


Edgar Cayce

Beyond Death 





What, exactly, is this “home” 

to which people seek to return?

 Most people think that “going home”

 means returning to God. 

But you cannot return to God

, because you never left God—

and your soul knows this. 

YOU may not know this at a conscious level, 

but your souls know this.


Neale Donald Walsch

Home With God




It has always been known 

that the capacity to accept death in the midst of life—

to swing with a conventionally intolerable vibration—

is a source of immense creative power.

 “Unless a grain of corn falls into the ground and dies, 

it remains isolated. 

But if it dies, 

it brings forth much fruit.” 

 And the Zen master Bunan:

 While living be a dead man, 

thoroughly dead. 

Then, whatever you do,

 just as you will, 

will be right.



Alan Watts:

Does It Matter?: Essays on Man’s Relation to Materiality 





Death has been dissected, 

cut to bits by a series of little steps, 

which finally make it impossible to know 

which step was the real death,

 the one in which consciousness  was lost,

 or the one in which breathing stopped. 

All these little silent deaths

 have replaced the great dramatic act of death,

 and no one any longer has the strength or patience 

to wait over a period of weeks

 for a moment that has lost a part of its meaning.




Philippe Aries

 Western Attitudes Toward Death




It is well for you to bear in mind the Universality of Life. 

All of the Universe is alive, vibrating 

and pulsating with life and energy and motion.

 There is nothing dead in the Universe. 

Life is everywhere,

 and always accompanied by intelligence.

 There is no such thing 

as a dead, unintelligent Universe.

 Instead of being atoms of Life

 floating in a sea of death, 

we are atoms of Life 

surrounded by an ocean of Life,

 pulsating, moving, thinking, and living. 


William Walker Atkinson

 A Series of Lessons in Raja Yoga 





Death,

 especially the most completely felt and experienced death,

 has never remained an obstacle to life

for a surviving individual,

 because its innermost essence

is not contrary to us 

(as one may occasionally suspect),

 but it is more knowing about life 

than we are in our most vital moments.

 I always think that such a great weight,

 with its tremendous pressure,

 somehow has the task of forcing us 

into a deeper, more intimate layer of life 

so that we may grow out of it

 all the more vibrant and fertile.



Rainer Maria Rilke

  The Dark Interval 





The Reality of Life is Life itself,

 whose beginning is not in the womb,

 and whose ending is not in the grave. 

For the years that pass

 are naught but a moment in eternal life; 

and the world of matter and all in it

 is but a dream 

compared to the awakening

 which we call the terror of Death.


Kahlil Gibran

The Words of the Master




There is only one ego appearing as many. 

Among the seemingly separated ones 

there is no belief where compromise is more willingly accepted

 than the belief in the dream of death. 

As the Course puts it:

 There isn’t really anyone else out there. 

There is only one ego appearing as many.…

If death is real for anything,

 there is no life. 

Death denies life. 

But if there is reality in life, 

death is denied.


Gary R. Renard

The Disappearance of the Universe




Chances are that your elders

 were callow youths before you were born. 

The distance until your death and theirs

 is not measured in days until then. 

It’s measured in life. 

It’s always been there,

 your death and theirs, 

the daemon at the end of your lives.

Both you and your old people

 have the same thing left: 

the rest of your lives.


Stephen Jenkinson

Come of Age 




Ancestors, friends, and colleagues 

want me to tell you 

that even though physical death has intervened,

 forgiveness can still be given and received. 

Most importantly, they want me to show you 

that love and life continue,

 that they’re still part of the family 

and witnessing both important events and little moments, 

and that we will all meet again in good time. 

They are always delighted

 when a physical loved one comes calling,

 and are eager to share their perspective

 on their time in the physical world. 

As more than one spirit has cheerfully told me:

“It will all make sense when you’re dead!”


Priscilla Keresey 

It Will All Make Sense When You're Dead: 

Messages From Our Loved Ones in the Spirit World 







The dreams of those about to die

 often involve dream structures

 that already prepare them for future existence.

 In fact, towards death

 a great dream acceleration is involved 

as new probabilities are considered —a

 dream acceleration that provides 

psychic impetus for new birth.


Jane Roberts  

The Nature of the Psyche: Its Human Expression 





Pressing and poignant though the problem of my mortality,

 of the end of this life – certainly is,

it is not the problem. 

The crucial question is: who is mortal? 

Whose life is it, in any case? 

Solve that puzzle, and the rest follows.

 There is no other way.



Douglas Harding

The Little Book of Life and Death





Each night, when I go to sleep, 

I die. 

And the next morning, 

when I wake up, 

 I am reborn.


Mahatma Gandhi






Those who are conscious in their dying

 don’t obsess on money, or houses,

 or occupations, or pleasures, or even peace. 

They speak of love.


Philip Jones

Light on Death






Look, denial is fine. 

It is normal to deny death.

 We are wired that way.

 But just, for a little bit, step outside of denial,

 get your paperwork in order,

 think about the options that face us, 

think about the fact that each of us will, in time, die.

 Talk with the people who are important to you.

 Get your hands around death and dying 

and then, if you wish,

 step right back into denial.


Susan Abel Lieberman

  Death, Dying and Dessert:

 Reflections on Twenty Questions About Dying  









"Now is the time to dig down for questions

, impossible to accept that your powers are so limited, 

and impossible to accept that your own body 

can’t always behave and respond well. 

Life is a mesmerizing mess,

 but if you were a proper Christian 

you’d find a comforting answer

 for the finite and infinite,

 the temporal and spiritual,

 with no grasping insistence that tomorrow, after all, 

will not be just another day.

 Isn’t it all too burdensome,

 this life, 

with so much loss taking its root in the heart,

 as the body goes spinning on 

towards a dreadful cessation.

 As Rita dies, I am a clenched fist,

 and we are soon in the church,

 where our intensity must be contained 

because you must accept 

that for a while you are here,

 and then one day you are not, 

because it’s all part of living. 

Accept, accept, accept. 

Accept even the unacceptable." 



Morrissey

Autobiography











The wave of psychic research that is now sweeping across the world

will wear thin the veil between the visible and the invisible. 

More and more men and women 

will live in two worlds at the same time; 

for the two worlds occupy the same space,

 and their differences 

are differences of consciousness, of vibration,

 the latter including a difference in states of matter.


Elsa Barker

Last Letters From the Living Dead Man





A conscious death

 allows you to utilize the death process 

in a way that transforms what appears to be

 a mere biological disfunction, or accident,

 into a spiritual art form—

the tool for the transformation of consciousness

 that it should be. 

 Conscious dying has effects

 exponentially powerful, benign and beneficial

 to the individual, society and all life.


Anya Foos-Graber

 Deathing






Life is expression. 

It comes to be out of the force of itself,

 and no force stands against it or threatens it. 

Death in your terms certainly seems an end,

 but it is instead 

a translation of life into another form.


The Nature of the Psyche: Its Human Expression 




For more than twenty years,

 I’ve been talking to people about death and the end of life,

 from the loss of newborn babies 

to young adults in their prime to elderly parents.

 There have been natural deaths and traumatic deaths—

accidents, overdoses, suicides—

deaths from disease, deaths from old age. 

Yet all of these conversations have had one theme in common:

 a connection felt by the living person to the deceased 

at or around the moment of death.

 These are all healthy, vital people 

who continue to live active lives.

 But for a moment, 

they were linked to another human being

 during a time of ultimate passage.

I started identifying these moments

 as “shared crossings,” 

and what they tell us

 is that none of us is leaving this earth alone.

 Each of us can and will be guided on our journey. 

How can I be certain of that?

 Because more and more,

 those who remain among the living

 have seen it, have felt it,

 and a few have even joined their loved ones

 for part of their journey to the afterlife.



William J. Peters.

At Heaven's Door: 

What Shared Journeys to the Afterlife Teach About Dying Well and Living Better













So many who are dying 

also say 

that they have never felt so alive.


Stephen and Ondrea Levine

 Who Dies?: An Investigation of Conscious Living and Conscious Dying 








Instead of discussing openly how to think about death

 and what we might appropriately choose in our dying

-a painful and difficult subject-

we too frequently and too easily

 transform the issue into the more distanced, comfortable language 

of rights and choices: 

not how or what we ought to choose,

 but that we have a right to choose.


Daniel Callahan

The Troubled Dream of Life






In that moment

 when Life and Death suddenly integrate,

 that Inconceivable Light 

passes before our eyes

 like a shooting star.


Shinmon Aoki

  Coffinman:  The Journal of a Buddhist Mortician





We are old friends, 

and his passing hence 

has not severed an earthly friendship;

 on the contrary, it has increased it,

 and provided many more opportunities of meeting

 than would have been possible had he remained on earth.

 He constantly expresses his delight

 upon his ability to return to earth 

in a natural, normal, healthy, and pleasant manner,

 and to give some account of his adventures and experiences

 in the spirit world, 

as one who 'being dead (as many would regard him),

 yet speaketh'.


Anthony Borgia

Life in the World Unseen






“The thing to do when you’re impatient,” he proceeded, 

“is to turn to your left and ask advice from your death. 

An immense amount of pettiness is dropped 

if your death makes a gesture to you, 

or if you catch a glimpse of it,

 or if you just have the feeling 

that your companion is there watching you."



Carlos Castaneda

Journey To Ixlan







Upon the arrival of 

The great death,

All concerns for 

The lesser death

Disappear. 

Somebody becomes

No body in particular and

Life goes on without fear.


Wu Hsin

An Interlude in Eternity






I know that without me 

God can no moment live; 

Were I to die, 

then He No longer could survive.

I am as great as God,

And He is small like me;

He cannot be above, 

Nor I below Him be.


Angelus Silesius

Epigrammatic Verses on the Spiritual Life







In principle the infinite is unity, 

but finite unity cannot be manifested without duality. 

In principle the infinite is life and being,

 but finite life and being cannot be manifested 

without death and non-being. 

 From the eternal standpoint 

 oppositions are seen as harmony, 

the dark side ever enhancing the beauty of the light.

 Death renders life more lively; 

darkness makes light stand out more brilliantly; 

separation makes the union of love more intense; 

suffering and evil are the essential media 

of courage and repentance,

 perfecting the splendour of goodness.



The Supreme Identity 

Alan Watts







Nirvana is often mistaken as leaving this world, 

the end of the cycle of birth and death.

 But as interpreted by the Mahayana,

 it is not a departure 

but a transformation.

 Nothing comes, 

nothing goes.


The Lankavatara Sutra 




Jesus prays,

 uncertain of the will of the Father, 

and is afraid of death. 

But once he knows what it is, 

he goes to meet it and offer himself up.

 Let us be going.

 He went forth.


Blaise Pascal

Pensees 








Death is not the opposite of life, 

but a part of it.


Haruki Murakami






No man is an island, 

Entire of itself, 

Every man is a piece of the continent, 

A part of the main.

If a clod be washed away by the sea, 

Europe is the less. 

As well as if a promontory were.

As well as if a manor of thy friend’s

Or of thine own were: 

Any man’s death diminishes me, 

Because I am involved in mankind, 

And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; 

It tolls for thee.


John Donne







I am going to that country

which I have all my life wished to see


William Blake



First, learn about death, 

and then about other things.


Nichiren Daishonin





Kabîr says: 

Dive thou into that Ocean of sweetness:

 thus let all errors of life and of death flee away

Look upon life and death; 

there is no separation between them,

The right hand and the left hand 

are one and the same.

Thus is the worshipper set free from fear; 

thus have

all errors of life and of death left him.


Kabir.

Songs of Kabir 






Death is the personality’s release from the physical plane,

 or we will use the term “the physical field,” 

and that is all.

 To the ego this is a frightening future in prospect. 

To the ego, even sleep seems a slap in the face. 

Recognition in physical life of the whole self

 would do much to negate this death fear,

 since there are rather pleasant psychological experiences

 which are akin to the experience of death, 

and which would prepare the personality for this eventuality.


Jane Roberts

The Early Sessions: Book 1 of The Seth Material 





(“What happens in cases of accidental death, to the spirit?”) 

Death is death.

 (“But people who die accidentally don’t expect death. 

The very ill, or old, or both, might be more or less prepared.”) 

Confusion, but only momentary.

 Shock not as bad as birth.


Jane Roberts

The Early Sessions: Book 1 of The Seth Material 






(“Does a person know immediately when he dies?”)

 Not always. 

(“Why not?”) 

Time to get bearings. Consciousness continues. Confusing.

 (“How long does it take for a person to realize his death, usually?”)

 Gradual realization, by stages of withdrawal and arrival.

 (“How does a person know he is dead at first? 

Is he left alone to find his own way, greeted by others, or what?”) 

Greeted by acquaintances from other lives.


Jane Roberts

The Early Sessions: Book 1 of The Seth Material 




There‘s no one way of dying well. 

 However, there are some things 

we might want to consider if that is our goal. 

    Living a good death

 begins the moment we accept our mortality

 as part of who we are.  

We’ve had to integrate 

other aspects of who we are into our daily lives –

 our gender, racial background, 

and cultural heritage, to name a few.  

Why not our mortality?


Richard Wagner

The Amateur's Guide to Death and Dying: Enhancing the End of Life 






Death has completely lost its sting for me.

 If I were to die, I couldn’t be happier. 

I would only be sad that I wouldn’t be as accessible

 to my kids and for any pain that my leaving

 might cause my family and friends. 

But, other than that, for me personally,

 I would love it.

 That being said, I don’t mind life either

 In fact, it keeps getting better. 

I have an awesome life

 and I wouldn’t trade places with anyone.

 But I have no attachment to it whatsoever.

 I recognize that it’s not real,

 it’s just a dream.

 I’m happy to play the game,

 but when it’s time to go, 

I’m there!


Jon Gabriel 

How to Change Your Universe











When you’re in a deep state of meditation,

 you no longer feel trapped ‘inside’ your body

 or trapped in the illusory world of your mind and material senses. 

You begin to feel like this place of bliss 

is exactly where you go when you die. 

Because to me the only difference between life and death 

is that in life you’re trapped in a pretend world,

 a make-believe world, 

a dream you usually can’t get out of.

 When you’re in a deep meditation 

you are out of that world, 

you are free 

and I’m pretty sure that’s exactly what death feels like.


Jon Gabriel 

How to Change Your Universe





Birth is much more of a shock than death.

  Sometimes when you die 

you do not realize it,

 but birth almost always implies 

a sharp and sudden recognition.

So there is no need to fear death.

 And I who have died more times than I care to tell,

speak these words to tell you so.


Seth   



My identity, what we call small identity—

like my label, my name, my nationality, my religion—

doesn’t survive bodily death.

  These are small identities. 

 If I am a member of the universe 

and a member of the earth community,

 and I am part and parcel of the life force,

 that is my identity. 

 It is my true identity 

or my primary identity. 

 My secondary identities are that I am an Indian. 

 I am a certain age. 

 I was born in the Jain religion, et cetera. 

 All these are secondary identities.  

We need not be afraid of losing secondary identities.



Satish Kumar





That I might know that man lives after death,

 it has been granted me to speak and converse

 with several persons with whom I had been acquainted 

during their life in the body,

 and this not merely for a day or a week, but for months, 

and in some instances for nearly a year,

 as I had been used to do here on earth.

  They were greatly surprised that they themselves,

 during their life in the body, 

had lived, and that many others still live, 

in such a state of unbelief concerning a future life, 

when nevertheless there intervenes 

but the space of a few days 

between the decease of the body 

and their entrance into another world—-

for death is a continuation of life.


  

Swedenborg

 Arcana Coelestia





We are immortal beings 

who have extended our conscious awareness 

throughout the entire breadth of our multidimensional universe. 

We are courageous explorers 

who have chosen to learn and evolve 

through the use of temporary vehicles of consciousness. 

Each life experience is orchestrated by us 

for our continuing education.

 We learn and grow at our own pace 

through total immersion of our consciousness 

in many different thought-responsive environments. 

This remarkable system of spiritual evolution

 is extremely demanding but also exceedingly effective,

 because all of us, without exception,

 will eventually graduate 

from the vast training grounds of form.



William Buhlman









Facing your own death is so important. 

Here is the thing: 

if you haven’t confronted your own death, 

how on earth can you help 

a friend or family member face theirs?  

You can’t!

The more real you can be with your own death, 

the more of a genuine help you can be 

for a friend or family member that is dying. 

The degree to which you can accept your own death 

is the same degree you will embrace and live your own life.


Stephen Lloyd Garrett

 When Death Speaks:  Listen, Learn, and Love 






Regardless of the state of their physical bodies,

 there was never any pain felt 

while floating in this observer position 

separated from their bodies.

 Even those who were struck by lightning or hit by a train, 

 had no sensation other than weightlessness,

 freedom from the confines of their dense physical body,

 and a deep sense of inner peace. 

Most people who have experienced these near-death experiences 

admit that they felt so absolutely wonderful while out of their body 

that they did not want to return to it.

 That’s how blissful it feels 

to leave our bodies and exist in spiritual form.


Bob  Olson

 Answers about the Afterlife: 

A Private Investigator's 15-Year Research Unlocks the Mysteries of Life after Death 







Takuan was unaffected by his fame and popularity, 

and at the approach of death he instructed his disciples, 

“Bury my body in the mountain behind the temple, 

cover it with dirt, and go home.

 Read no sutras, hold no ceremony.

 Receive no gifts from either monk or laity.

 Let the monks wear their robes, eat their meals,

 and carry on as on normal days.”

 Asked for a final poem as he lay dying,

 he wrote the Chinese character for “dream”

 ( 夢 ), 

threw away the brush, 

and passed away.


 William Scott Wilson 

 The One Taste of Truth: Zen and the Art of Drinking Tea 









Verily death is the bridge that unites friend to friend.


Muhammad






Death and the Physical Body


I don’t understand why, if this is a dream, death is necessary.


In a word, it is not. 

Does that surprise you? 

It is only your acceptance of it

 which makes it apparently so. 

Should you at this moment absolutely discard 

the very firm belief that you hold that says,

 “I was born; I will die, there is a beginning;

 there is an end, there are transitions,” 

you would no longer experience death.

 The meaning of that which you believe

 is transferred into those things you experience within your physical life. 

If there is no longer meaning to beginning and end, 

to birth and death, 

how could you possibly experience it? 

You see infinite life as being a process

 of going between the physical and discarnate state. 

If you saw infinite life 

as being a continuous flow

 without the need for interruption, 

then that would be the way you would experience it. 

Too simple?

 If you truly had no problem with this,

 you would never die.


Tom Carpenter

  Dialogue on Awakening





There is no man so fortunate 

that there shall not be by him when he is dying 

some who are pleased 

with what is going to happen.


Marcus Aurelius 






Make fun of death. 

We are as dead as it gets,

 and we are fully aware of this joyous experience. 

We are with you every time you allow it. 

We are in every singing bird and in every joyful child.

 We are part of every delicious pulsing in your environment. 

We are not dead, 

and neither will you ever be! 

You will just get up, one day, 

and get out of the movie.


Abraham






Death has been dissected,

 cut to bits by a series of little steps,

 which finally make it impossible to know 

which step was the real death, 

the one in which consciousness  was lost,

 or the one in which breathing stopped.

 All these little silent deaths 

have replaced the great dramatic act of death, 

and no one any longer

 has the strength or patience t

o wait over a period of weeks

 for a moment which has lost a part of its meaning.



Philippe Aries

 Western Attitudes Toward Death



We all speak a common language, 

the language of love. 

And in loving life,

 we must also find a space in us

 to desire a death that comes at the right time. 

A death that is without suffering or pain or anxiety.

 A death that is comfortable, meaningful,

 and dare I say, beautiful. 

After writing this book,

 my commitment to saving lives is stronger than ever,

 but so is my commitment to advocating 

for a dignified death free of suffering, 

a death we all are due, 

not a moment too soon

 or a moment too late. 


Blair Bigham

 Death Interrupted 









Two hundred years ago, 

when nearly everyone died in their living room or their bed,

 they fulfilled “the most important role of their lives: 

they showed other people how to die.” 

When death was a common thing to witness,

 it was thus somewhat normalized. 

  throughout your life, siblings, uncles, aunts, 

friends, and others around you would die, 

and when they did, 

there was a good chance you’d be there when it happened. 

There was a fear of death,

 but no denial that it would come.



Blair Bigham

 Death Interrupted 





Technology can prevent death from coming too soon, but it can also delay its timely arrival. With the power granted by advanced technology to cheat death, doctors must also have the wisdom to know when and how to wield it, because death will come for all of us. How to achieve a timely death isn’t really taught in medical schools or spoken about in hospital hallways, and it has become a critical gap in our culture.



Blair Bigham 

Death Interrupted 




You can always decide, you can ALWAYS decide

 to not incarnate again.  

You could allow the life you are living right now to be,

 in a sense, linearly speaking, the last life you will have. 

 You do not necessarily have to be what you might call

 “the most spiritually awakened being on Earth” 

in order to allow yourself to realize 

that you may wish to explore and grow 

and learn in other dimensions, 

and in non-physicality as well.

  But you do not ever “have to” incarnate.  

Never. 



Bashar: 

Quest for Truth 





I have always found 

that the people who have quite genuinely died to themselves 

make no claims of any kind to their own part in the process .

 They think of themselves as lazy and lucky .

 If they did anything at all ,

 it was so simple that anyone else could do the same — 

for all that they have done

 is to recognize a universal fact of life , 

something as true of the weak and foolish

 as of the wise and strong .

 They would even say that in this respect 

there is some advantage in being weak and foolish , 

for the possession of a strong will and a clever head 

makes some things very difficult to see .


Alan W. Watts

Become What You Are







I have heard from others 

who are disturbed by the way Ramana Maharishi died, 

but when the physical karma is exhausted 

and the prana begins to withdraw from the body, 

something has to go first. 

Whether the body exits 

through cancer, kidney failure, 

heart disease, or a stroke, 

it really doesn’t matter to spirit.


Deepak Chopra

   Ask Deepak About Death and Dying 




I saw the death phobia that permeates our time

 brought to bear upon dying people

 in the name of caring for them.

 And I saw that as a culture 

we have a withered psychology 

of coping and accepting 

where we might once have had a mythology

 and a poetry of purposed, meaningful dying. 

This poverty was the constant companion and chimera

 of almost every dying person I worked with. 

I discovered that few wanted to die well, 

fewer still, wisely.

 Most didn’t want to die at all,

 and they spent their dying time 

refusing to do so.


Stephen Jenkinson

Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul  



A conscious death 

allows you to utilize the death process in a way

 that transforms what appears to be

 a mere biological dysfunction, or accident, 

into a spiritual art form—

the tool for the transformation of consciousness that it should be. 

 Conscious dying has effects 

exponentially powerful, benign 

and beneficial to the individual, 

society and all life.


Anya Foos-Graber

  Deathing






You need not bring your dream to a definite conclusion,

 or make it noble, or happy, or beautiful;

  all you need is 

to realize that you are dreaming.


Nisargadatta Maharaj








Pretend for a moment that you are a child,

 and I am trying to undertake the particular chore

 of explaining to you what your most developed adult self will be like - 

and in my explanation, 

I say that this adult self is to some extent part of you, 

an outgrowth, or projection of what you are. 

And the child says

 "But what will happen to me? 

Must I die to become this other self?

 I do not want to change.

 How can I ever be this adult self,

 when it is not what I am now, 

without dying as what I am.


Jane Roberts

Seth Speaks






Whatsoever I wanted to paint,

 I have painted.

 Now, just to exist is pointless.

 I have given that which I came to give; 

now I can go back to the original source. 

There is no need to live in the body anymore. 

I have contributed.



Osho

Living On Your Own Terms





That transitional experience 

will go on and on and on 

until the ascension above all sense of this world. 

Then, there will be no more reincarnation

 because there will be no place 

into which to be reborn.


Joel S. Goldsmith

Leave Your Nets





Today people think: 

 when a human being has  passed through the  gate of death, 

his activity ceases

 as far as the physical world is concerned. 

 But indeed it is not so!  

There is a living and perpetual intercourse

 between the so-called dead and the so-called living. 

 Those who have passed  through the gate of death 

have not  ceased to be present; 

 it is only that  our eyes 

have ceased to see them. 

 They are there in very truth.



Rudolph  Steiner:

The Dead Are With Us






You are afraid to die? 

Buddha says: “You cannot die, 

because in the first place, you are not.” 

How can you die? 

 Look into your being, go deep into it. 

See, who is there to die – 

and you will not find any ego there. 

Then there is no possibility of death.

 Only the idea of ego creates the fear of death.

 When there is no ego there is no death. 

You are utter silence, deathlessness, eternity – 

not as you, but as an open sky, 

uncontaminated by any idea of “I,” of self 

– unbounded, undefined. 

Then there is no fear.


Osho

Next Time You Feel Suicidal:

instead, live and celebrate your life in your own way 






You grieve for those that should not be grieved for.

The wise grieve neither for the living nor the dead.

Never at any time was I not.

Nor thou, nor these princes of men.

Nor will we ever cease to be hereafter.

For the unreal has no being 

And the real never ceases to be.


Bhagavad Gita




Now more than any other time in human history, 

humans are presented with this choice:

 Do we want quality of life or quantity of life? 

 Do we want to extend life through artificial means, 

or do we forego medical aid

 and die on our own terms? 

 We are being asked to make decisions

 that were previously “left up to God.”

  We are, as we grow and expand our knowledge of the human body,

 determining more and more of our fate. 

 And as medicine has created “miracle” after “miracle” 

there has to be a point when we say,

 “I’m tired of the miracles.

  I’m ready to die.”



Caleb Wilde

 Confessions of a Funeral Director







After the ego is gone one

 finds that the self no longer exists, 

and one has died what Zen calls the Great Death,

 daishi. 

With that death, though,

 we have at last become free.

 In Zen literature, 

this state is described in this way: 

The blue mountains, 

from the beginning, 

do not move;

 The white clouds,

 of themselves, 

come and go.


Yamamoto Tsunetomo

 Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai 





You can be of great assistance to an individual

 if they have chosen to become non-physical, 

to allow them to become non-physical with dignity,

 with joy and effortlessness,

 with love, with ecstasy, with ease…

to allow them to know, 

to allow them to remember 

that it is only the idea of stepping from one room to another room

 in the same house. 

 That is all that death is.

 They have made their choices. 

Allow them to do so with dignity.



Bashar

 Quest for Truth





















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