Relax, You’re Going to Die

Today’s Oracle

My software angels choose this oracle quote for you today:

 

217) From your happy, relaxed state, you can model real success, which is all that so many people in the world really want. They may buy endless cars and houses and furs and gobble up all the attention and space they can manage, or barely manage, but this is because it is not yet clear to them that success is truly an inside job. That it is within the reach of almost everyone. -- Alice Walker Nov. 5, 2008 in a letter to Barak Obama.

You can use my Potent Quotes Oracle page whenever you need help.  Hold a question in your heart, and see what quote comes up for you when you scroll down.  It will be a response to your question.  Play with it.

Quotations act as little doorways into new worlds and new perceptions. They consist of distilled genius. 

Get the Wizard's Handbook on Oracle Creation and have fun with oracles. 

 

Relax, You’re Going to Die

“Relax, you’re going to die.”

Death may not be THE challenge, but knowing that you’re going to die is.

Most folks spend tons of time, money, and energy  pretending that death will not come to them or their family.  People distract themselves with endless addictions and other ways so that they don’t notice the elephant in the room.  Each decade marker they cross twinges a bit more.

I found that when I turned fifty, I began to think I might be mortal.   I thought a bit more when I turned sixty.  In both instances, I watched the awareness of death fade into the mists of denial. 

Soon, October 21^st, 2013, I will go into the hospital for my second hip replacement.  It’s a generally safe surgery, but just like driving a car, I have no guarantees that I’ll survive the journey.  I attend to getting my affairs in order – wills and such.  Tell people I love them.

So, I enjoyed the synchronicity of finding this Kindle book – Relax, You're Going to Die at the time I was contemplating death and life.  (It was free when I got it.  It may still be free when you read this.)

Tai Sheridan, the author, is a Zen Buddhist priest, of course.  No one else but Zen practitioners have such a sanguine view of death and life.  Indeed, it could be the whole point of Zen.

He has written a dozen or so poems on the subject of living and dying in Relax, You're Going to Die.  I found the poems fun, supportive, and comforting stuff.

You have read my favorite Zen aphorism before:

There is no-where to go

And no-thing to do.

I have updated it:

Relax, you’re going to die.

There is no-where to go

And no-thing to do.

And do next right thing?

I’ll leave you with one more of my favorite Zen aphorisms.

Death is certain.

Time of death is uncertain.

How then to live your life?

Relax, you’re going to die.  I find it oddly comforting and freeing.

=> Relax, You're Going to Die

Walk in beauty,

William

P.S. Thanks for downloading Drawing the Sacred: Communing with the Sacred through Drawing - An Illustrated Journey.

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