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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What Was Revealed – 100 Day practice

What Was Revealed – 100 Day practice

This isn’t the most powerful question in the world –

Is today a good day to die?

This is –

Is today a good day for Suzanne to die?

Holy Poop! If I have any doubt about the nature of life and death, this question will flush it out. If I have any doubt who my wife, Suzanne, truly is, this question will slap me awake.


A Refresher –

My friend and colleague, Kim Ivy challenged me and her students with maintaining a practice for 100 days. It’s a traditional Taoist idea.

I took it on.


My Practice

My practice was to show up every morning at the beach on Lake Washington or on the Salish Sea, practice Taiji (Tai Chi) or something similar in order to be present enough to be able to say wholeheartedly, “Today is a good day to die!”

In order to be able to say that wholeheartedly, you have to be present. No mind chatter. The grasping, clinging ego never thinks it’s a good day to die. When you’re present, the ego is gone. You are free to say, “Today is a good day to die!”

My beloved Zen teacher, Genjo, said, “That’s all well and good William, but how about a good day for Suzanne to die?

“#@$%** you and the horse you came in on,” I said.

Genjo just laughed, of course.

I found this second question – Is today a good day for Suzanne to die? – most revealing. If you ask my ego, there is never a good day for Suzanne to die.

You may have guessed that someday it will be the day that Suzanne dies. I may be lucky enough to be there. We have been married for nearly four decades. We’re likely to be married until death do us part. So this practice has a point to it, doesn’t it.

In order to say – Today is a good day for Suzanne to die -- wholeheartedly, I have to be deeply present. I have to know who she is at the deepest levels.

I showed up every day for the 100 days just like the US mail – through rain, wind, cold. Some days were a tad sloppy, others fully transcendent as you might expect.

One day slipped my mind completely due to a change in routine.


The Surprises I Discovered

At some point, moving through my morning forms, I would open to the vast magic of life unfolding in the present moment, and I would find Suzanne right there, in the infinite moment.

One day she was in the curvature of the earth. Another in the Lombardy poplar, another in the cherry blossoms. Each day she appeared. Each day she appeared in a different guise. Obviously on each day, I could say, “Today is a good day for Suzanne to die.”

Blessings,

William

P.S. You can Learn 'Secrets' that Most People Will Never Know About How to Really Benefit from the Vibrantly Potent, Martial Art Form of Standing Meditation...

Give us 35 minutes listening to this playfully powerful conversation, and we, William Wittmann and Kim Ivy (www.EmbraceTheMoon.com) will reveal the power and magic of standing meditation. "This is fun. This is easy. This is hot."

Go for it =>

http://www.bodyandsoulmentor.net/getstandingmeditation.html

Evening

Evening

It’s one o’clock in the morning and my brother, John, and I are sitting on either side of my father’s hospital bed in the quiet, dimly lit care unit in lovely costal southern California.

Our father is dying.

For several hours he has been disappearing into some realm where we could not follow. He stops breathing. Minutes pass. Then with a huge effort he takes another breath and returns.

He talks with us, making sure things are good between us, stays as long as he can, then some wind sweeps him away on his journeys. He repeats his coming and going all night.

John and I peacefully observe this profound mystery unfold.

My brother and I each have 30 year meditation practices. We’re comfortable just sitting. Just breathing. Even while our father dies.

It was intense, and it was sweet.

It was one of the richest times of my life and continues to inform my work and inspire my life.

The film, Evening, parallels John’s and my journey with our father.

I recommend you watch it. Here’s why. You can upgrade your right brain, (one of my four alluring paradigms) with this film.

This film will present you with beautiful design (one of the six skills for upgrading your right brain). It takes place by the sea in Newport, RI in a beautiful mansion.

I mostly want you to see it for its ability to fortify your empathy. Empathy is another of the six right brained skills you need to navigate the 21st C. Strengthening your empathy enhances your ability, as well as everyone else’s, to thrive.

Vanessa Redgrave plays Ann who is dying and drifting into and out of this and other realms like my father who thought he was in France. Claire Danes plays Ann as a young woman in the flashbacks.

The two sisters are played by Toni Collette and Natasha Richardson, who is the real life daughter of Vanessa Redgrave. Their bedside scenes will move you.

Some of the most fun, yes fun, and deepest wisdom come from the interactions between Ann and Ilene Atkins, the night nurse, while she is wearing a ball gown.

Even with all this death, my fathers and Ann’s, you will be richer for the journey.

Rent the DVD Evening. http://tinyurl.com/y6dmfn