The Horizon of Life - Halifax & Willis

Our priorities shift as we see the horizon of life that is the
threshold of death...

Joan Halifax
Zen Buddhist
Director of Upaya Center
Author of Being with Dying

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At the end of life or if we become sick, [or in the aging process]
we begin to let go of the roles that previously offered significance,
status and definition; the losses of position, responsibilities,
self-image, etc.  We become informed by internal rather than external
 concerns.  How we work with these losses and still find meaning
 will shape and inform how we close our lives...

Claire B. Willis LICSW

From - Lasting Words

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I interviewed a woman who was terminally ill.

'So', I tried delicately to ask, 'What is it like to wake up every
morning and know that you are dying?

'Well', she responded, 'What is it like to wake up every morning
and pretend that you are not?'"

-unknown

 

The Ancient Path of Dying - Sam Keen

 The basic motivation for human behavior is the need
to control our basic anxiety, to deny death in a world
where we are fated to die.  This is the terror: to have
emerged from nothing, to have a name, consciousness
of self, deep inner feelings, an excruciating inner yearning
for life and self-expression - and with all this yet die.

Since the terror of death is so overwhelming we conspire
to keep it unconscious.  The "vital lie character"
[personality] is the first line of defense that protects
us from the painful awareness of our helplessness...

Every child creates a personality...
So long as we stay obediently within the defense
mechanisms of our personality, the "character armor"
we feel safe and are able to pretend to avoid death.
And life escapes us while we huddle within the defended
fortress of "character" [personality].

But there's an ancient path of wisdom: practice dying.

Cultivating an awareness of death leads to disillusionment,
loss of the "character armor", and a conscious choice to
abide in the face of terror [death].  Instead of hiding
within the illusion of "character" we see our impotence
and vulnerability.  Living with the voluntary consciousness
of death, we can choose despair or trust the "vitality of the
cosmos", in the unknown god of life whose mysterious
"purpose" is expressed in the overwhelming drama of
cosmic evolution.

Sam Keen

From the Forward to
The Denial Of Death
by Earnest Becker
1973

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Photo - Mystic Meandering