To Die For
A Beginner’s Guide To Dying

Introduction

I am dying. But then again, so are you. So are we all.

From the time of conception, we begin the process of dying, which some call living. Whilst living has only a measured existence, dying is what takes us out of the finite and into infinity. It is why death is celebrated in many cultures, and in fact, in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, one is not considered to have lived until one has died. And that is why the day of one’s death, and not that of birth, is celebrated.

To arrive at the day when we are freed of this physical state of decay, and the total of our life’s enlightenment comes to fruition, is indeed a time to celebrate. In this short but, I trust, confronting, treatise, I hope to explore the phenomenon of death and dying in such a way as to alleviate the morbidity of death and elevate its validity. Rather than wait till the incontrovertible day when we must all die, why not consider now, what is one of the only questions Man has not been given the answer to by our creator? We do not know how and when we will die, but we can explore the possibilities. In any case I think it’s time we started to prepare for that most wondrous trip of all: our release back into the cosmos.