The Five Invitations: Discovering What Death Can Teach Us About Living Fully

Earth dissolves into water. Water dissolves into fire. Fire dissolves into air. Air dissolves into space. Space dissolves into consciousness.

“Helping, fixing, and serving represent three different ways of seeing life. When you help, you see life as weak. When you fix, you see life as broken. When you serve, you see life as whole. Fixing and helping may be the work of the ego, and service the work of the soul.”

thought of the American Buddhist nun and bestselling author Pema Chödrön, who wrote, “The problem is that the desire to change yourself is fundamentally a form of aggression toward yourself.”

thought to myself of a few lines from Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut: And I was some of the mud that got to sit up and look around. Lucky me, lucky mud.

The Thai meditation master Ajahn Chah once motioned to a glass at his side. “Do you see this glass?” he asked. “I love this glass. It holds the water admirably. When the sun shines on it, it reflects the light beautifully. When I tap it, it has a lovely ring. Yet for me, this glass is already broken. When the wind knocks it over or my elbow knocks

Jack Kornfield tells the story of a particular evening when Hob was giving a Buddhist dharma talk. One evening, however, he found himself standing before a meditation group having forgotten who he was and why he was there. So he simply began to mindfully acknowledge out loud his experiences: “blank mind … curiosity, nervousness, calming, blank mind

“You are as amazing as the blue sky above us. Your emotions are like the clouds passing through the sky. This story of unrequited love is just another passing show. Like clouds, emotions can be powerful and painful. Sometimes they appear big enough to block out the sun. But it’s only temporary. Don’t be fooled.”

Our brains are not computer hard drives. Human memory is not a simple matter of “accurate data in, accurate data out.” It is a far more complicated, subtle, and beautiful process.

I do see that each wave is completely unique. No two waves are the same. They come into form dependent on many differing conditions, live for a while, and express a distinctive beauty before they disappear, thrown up on the beach before flowing back out to sea. Each wave is distinct, yet not separate. All are part of the same ocean. The ocean is on

SONO’S DEATH POEM Don’t just stand there with your hair turning gray, soon enough the seas will sink your little island. So while there is still the illusion of time, set out for another shore. No sense packing a bag. You won’t be able to lift it into your boat. Give away all your collections. Take only new seeds and an old stick. Send out some pra