Being with Dying: Cultivating Compassion and Fearlessness in the Presence of Death

by Joan Halifax

Death is inescapable. All beings, you and me, are heading straight into its mouth.

When I touch the hand of an old woman as the breath rattles out of her body, wanting to make her dying easier would only be an obstacle to my being there with her.

He saw that the habit of materialism was so strong in him that not even the threat of dying of cancer had been enough to keep him on the path for long. He felt that he was living a lie and denying the gift of insight that had been given to him as a result of his illness. He felt deeply dissatisfied.

My only job was to bear witness to his suffering and at the same time to see his good heart steadily beating underneath all of his misery.

Nothing extra!

What do you want to have realized?

What has been the biggest gift you have received in this life? With whom do you want to share your love for the last time?

Maintaining the story of “I” is exhausting. Defending the “I,” promoting the “I,” accumulating merit for the “I” can wear you out.

We cannot bank love; it grows as we give it away.