You are dipped up from the great river of consciousness, and death only pours you back.
~ Dorothy Canfield Fisher
Rhythm & flow
Every arrival foretells a leave-taking; every birth a death. Yet each death and departure comes to us as a surprise, a sorrow never anticipated. Life is a long series of farewells; only the circumstances should surprise us.
- Jessamyn West
Transformation
Death is simply a shedding of the physical body like the butterfly shedding its cocoon.
~ Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, On Life After Death
Life Continuous
Earth brings us into life and nourishes us. Earth takes us back again. Birth and death are present in every moment.
- Thich Nhat Hanh
Moment of Now
There is little difference between what one calls a long life and a short one. After all, it is but a moment in the indefinity of time.
- Chuang Tzu, 3rd century BCE
Darkness makes us aware of the stars. And so when the dark hours arise, They may hold a bright and lovely thing, We might never have known otherwise.
- Peter Lea
Time & Nature
Just as whole forests burn to the ground and eventually grow anew, just as spring follows winter, So it's Nature's way, that through it all, Whatever we suffer, We can keep on growing.
- Judy Tatelbaum
Soul & Healing
Your body has its own healing wisdom within it - and so does your soul, the expressive container of your emotional life.
- Alla Renee Bozarth
Just as when the waves lash at the shore, the rocks suffer no damage but are sculpted and eroded into beautiful shapes, so our characters can be molded and our rough edges worn smooth by changes.
~ Sogyal Rinpoche The Tibetan Book of Living and dying
Death is a mirror in which the entire meaning of life is reflected.
- Sogyal Rinpoche, The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying
I N T E R W O V E N
All life, living or "dead," is interwoven like silk threads in a fine brocade.
- Philip Kapleau, The wheel of Life and Death
Do not let your hearts be troubled, believe in God. Believe also in Me. In my Father's house are many mansions; If it were not so I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way where I am going.
- Christ speaking in John 14:1-4
Life
Death puts life into perspective.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
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So you mustn't be frightened if a sadness rises in front of you, larger than any you have ever seen... You must realize that something is happening to you, that life has not forgotten you, that it holds you in its hand and will not let you fall.
- Rainier Maria Rilke
To live in remorse is to live backwards. If death is to have any meaning at all it is to teach us the power of love and to allow that power to propel us through the rest of our days.
- Barbara Lazear Ascher
Strange - all that was is now magnified and monumental. At the same time, all that was now isn't.
- Stephanie Ericsson
Miraculous Prayer
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This existence of ours is as transient as autumn clouds. To watch the birth and death of beings is like looking at the movements of a dance. A lifetime is like a flash of lightning in the sky, Rushing by, like a torrent down a steep mountain.
- Buddha
Remaining Presence
People come and go in life, but they never leave your dreams. Once they're in your subconscious, they are immortal.
- Patricia Hampl
Life is a school in which every sorrow, every pain, every heartbreak brings a precious lesson.
- Sivananda
Just as when the waves lash at the shore, the rocks suffer no damage but are sculpted and eroded into beautiful shapes, so our characters can be molded and our rough edges worn smooth by changes.
~ Sogyal Rinpoche The Tibetan Book of Living and dying
Tomorrow or the next life, which comes first, we never know.
