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

For anyone curious, the woman talking at the beginning is Roshi Joan Halifax. Abbot and founder of the Upaya Zen Center in New Mexico. She wrote a really great book called Being With Dying that was inspirational to me.

She might not be, but Joan Halifax has a great book on the topic of what a dying grandmother might be interested in: Being With Dying: Cultivating Compassion and Fearlessness in the Presence of Death

"In this moving meditation on palliative care, Halifax tells a story about a dying Zen teacher who confesses to his students: Maybe I will die in fear or pain. Remember there is no right way. This sentiment forms the core of a book that provides practical and philosophical guidance to caregivers. Drawing on her 30 years of experience in the contemplative care of the dying, Halifax honestly enumerates the challenges of being with the dying while exalting it as a school for unlearning the patterns of resistance... [it] enjoins us to be still, let go, listen, and be open to the unknown. According to Halifax, bearing witness to dying can teach innumerable lessons to the living—assuming we give up our tight control strategies, our ideas of what it means to die well. Halifax is a Zen priest, and while many of her teachings derive from Buddhism, her supremely readable book will attract readers of all faiths who will appreciate her clarity and compassion and the poignancy of these stories of ordinary people facing their final hours with quiet courage."

It is a 9-page document put together by Joan Halifax as a sort of guide to a daily meditation on the topic death. I first came across it while reading her book titled Being with Dying: Cultivating Compassion and Fearlessness in the Presence of Death.

The introduction states the following:

"The Nine Contemplations that follow offer a way to explore the inevitability of death and what is important to us in the light of our mortality. The practice asks us to question what we are doing in our life at this very moment and to see what is important for us to do in order to prepare for death. The contemplations come from Atisha, an eleventh-century Tibetan Buddhist scholar, who systematized the method for generating an enlightened mind. This practice is based on the work of Larry Rosenberg."

At the end, the nine points to consider are summarized in this way:

"Death is inevitable. Our life span is decreasing continuously. Death will come regardless of whether we are prepared for it. Human life expectancy is uncertain. Death has many causes. The human body is fragile and vulnerable. Our friends cannot keep us from death. Our material resources cannot help us at the moment of death. And our own body cannot help us at the time of death."