Meditation and Dying

When the vicar intones the words 'in the midst of life we are in death' they sound a million miles away don't they?  Well they aren't and even if you look out of the window at this time of year, you see that everything is getting ready to pack up until the spring.  Leaves die, flowers drop, stems wither.  And now we are in the Grandparent zone, our friends and relatives get the sorts of diseases and conditions which mean life is receding.  We don't like this bit because it whispers our own mortality but as long as it is at one remove, we find ourselves still planning future events.  This optimism is good but we should be optimistic with an eye to the facts of life which aren't just about the birds and bees.  The facts of life are that that which is born will die, that which comes into being, will depart.  Meditating with this fact can help to lessen the alarm we feel when we hear that someone we love has got a bit closer to the exit. It means we can look the exit in the eye and realise it is just a word over something bigger than we see with our ordinary eye.  It is probably and hopefully where fullness of being is.  The main trouble is that we have to do this ourselves, we have to prepare by watching others undertake the journey and prepare by trying out being without the things which define us in meditation.  So, that is the practice, every day you take yourself to the exit and rest there so you get used to it and perhaps experience being free of the stuff your life has become.