Dying to Live

A Meditation For the Last Day of Your Life

May the fullness of our life also include embodied life,
the space between two breaths,
the first breath and the last breath.

And in each in breath is a memory
of the rushing in of life.
Each out breath is an invitation
to prepare for the last breath,
a letting go of life.

A simple in and out of the breath.
Inspiration – in spiritus, spirit living in us.
Expiration – dying, spirit leaving us.

And so we live our life,
each minute
with the memory of in-spirit,
inspiration,
and expiration. 
A coming in and a going out.
In and out.

And you have been called to this day.

Life has called you to this day,
It is not death
which has called you to this day.
It is life which has.
Life calls you to its beginning,
and it calls you to its ending.
And we follow its calling.
Sometimes with awareness,
sometimes without.

So during this time,
as you move towards your dying,
watch the simple movement of the breath.

And reflect on just how intangible your life is.
How on the gossamer string of breath,
a carbon based life form exists -
no oxygen,
no life,
no embodied life.

You have the opportunity through consideration of your dying, 
to see just how much you treasure and value life. 
And perhaps until you knew you were going to die, 
you haven’t valued it as fully as you do now.

And so in this ritual death, 
in this movement out of time into eternity, 
in this movement out of form into space, 
in this movement out of story into hi-story, 
comes the process of letting go, 
the sweet process of surrender, 
of moving back into, 
of moving beyond.

The moving in to your original form.

Let your heart be filled with gratitude 
for the life that you have had. 
For the opportunity you have had to live 
this situation of one-ness. 

Consciousness compressed into carbon. 
A life form that grew itself. 
And awareness that hung on the gossamer thread of breath.

A body sustained by light that had been frozen into matter, 
which we ate to release the light inside us. 
A body that was sustained by the rain 
which fell from the heavens 
and refreshed us each day.

A consciousness that could be reminded of its celestial origins by a rainbow,
by a mist in the mountains, 
by a sunrise, 
by a sunset, 
by the sound of the waves, 
by the majesty of the rocks, 
by the expansiveness of the desert.

These wonderful reminders,
that were there to transport us out of the mundane, 
and by touching us with their beauty, 
remind us of the beauty that we are.

So we commit your souls into the arms of loving spirit, 
into the arms of your original nature.

_____________________________________________________

Deva Daricha "Dying That You Might Live"
A Manual for Teaching the Dying to Live Ritual of Death and Rebirth.