Preparing for Death and Helping the Dying

More documents

Recommendations

Info

10 HOW TO PREPARE FOR DEATH THE FOUR TASKS OF LIVING AND DYING Christine Longaker, an American woman with over 20 years’ experience working with the dying, has formulated four tasks which will help us to prepare for death, as well as to live our lives fully and meaningfully. The four are: 1) Understanding and transforming suffering. Basically this means coming to an acceptance of the various problems, difficulties and painful experiences which are an inevitable part of life, and learning to cope with them. If we can learn to cope with the smaller sufferings that we encounter as we go through life, we will be better able to cope with the bigger sufferings that we will face when we die. We can ask ourselves: how do I react when problems, physical or mental, happen to me? Is my way of reacting healthy and satisfying, or could it be im-
proved? What are some ways I can learn to cope better with problems? Suggested practices from the Tibetan tradition include patience, thinking about karma, compassion, and tonglen (“taking and giving”—see Appendix 1). An explanation of these practices can be found in Transforming Problems into Happiness by Lama Zopa Rinpoche (Wisdom Publications, Boston, 1993). 2) Making a connection, healing relationships and letting go. This task refers to our relationships with others, particularly family and friends. The main points here are to learn to communicate honestly, compassionately and unselfishly, and to resolve any unresolved problems we may have with others. Think about your relationships with your family, friends, people you work with, etc. Are there any unresolved problems? How can you start working towards resolving these? Suggestions: Forgiveness meditation (see Appendix 2), resolving problems. 3) Preparing spiritually for death. Christine writes: 11
Page 1: Preparing for Death and Helping the
Page 4 and 5: CONTENTS Preface To The Revised Edi
Page 6 and 7: PREFACE TO THE REVISED EDITION This
Page 8 and 9: INTRODUCTION Death is a subject tha
Page 10 and 11: training and preparation, a peacefu
Page 12 and 13: the fear of death (because we tend
Page 14 and 15: And: 2 What is born will die What h
Page 16 and 17: turned to the Buddha, buried her ch
Page 18 and 19: die, for example, on an operating t
Page 20 and 21: may lead us to take birth in unfort
Page 24 and 25: 12 “Every religious tradition emp
Page 26 and 27: death itself is one of the most eff
Page 28 and 29: 16 • keeping in mind an object of
Page 30 and 31: and making regular prayers for such
Page 32 and 33: correspond to the gradual dissoluti
Page 34 and 35: such as The Tibetan Book of the Dea
Page 36 and 37: Thus one of the most important skil
Page 38 and 39: and deal with turbulent emotions. I
Page 40 and 41: 28 Sogyal Rinpoche says (p.213): Al
Page 42 and 43: ence, dedicating the merit of these
Page 44 and 45: their religious beliefs and practic
Page 46 and 47: have stopped breathing. Remember th
Page 48 and 49: spiritual instructions. Among the p
Page 50 and 51: 38 CONCLUSION I hope that the ideas
Page 52 and 53: dark smoke. It comes into your hear
Page 54 and 55: person you love whom you want to fo
Page 56 and 57: 44 NOTES 1. Gary Zukav, The Dancing
Page 58 and 59: 46 You never think of death’s app
Page 60 and 61: 48 Driven by the winds, swept by th
Page 62 and 63: 50 RECOMMENDED READING BUDDHIST TEA
Page 64 and 65: Dying. London: Papermac, 1988. Call
Page 66: 54 St Joseph’s Home & Hospice 921

Preparing for Death and Helping the Dying

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?