By Kim Weeber, Tibetan Recollection by Richard Baer

The topic of death came up today in our sangha meeting. It is something that we are taught to avoid in our culture, but it is a powerful contemplation for our meditation practice. No one can escape death, but contemplating it can deepen our practice and understanding, as well as our compassion.

How can we deal with death the fact of skillfully? We can start to hold the reality of our mortality as a regular part of our practice. And a good way of doing that is with daily recitation of the 5 Recollections.

1. I am of the nature to grow old; I cannot avoid ageing.
2. I am of the nature to become ill; I cannot avoid illness.
3. I am of the nature to die; I cannot avoid death.
4. All that is mine, dear and delightful, will change and vanish.
5. I am the owner of my karma;
   I am born of my karma;
   I live supported by my karma;
   I am related to my karma;
   Whatever I do, whether good or evil, that I will inherit.

We can also choose to hold the fact and experience of our mortality with compassion. If we get in touch with how it feels to face our own death or the death of someone close to us, we can feel the fear/grief/anger emotions and body sensations, and allow them to be there. We can contemplate that many people are feeling similar emotions and sensations right now. Our grief can connect us to others. We can extend compassion to all who are going through this experience. “May we all be free from suffering. May we all have ease and well-being.”

Lastly, if someone we know is passing, we can read this Tibetan Buddhist recollection for them and for us.

“Remember the Clear Light”

Remember the clear light, the pure clear white light from which everything in the universe comes,
to which everything in the universe returns;

The original nature of your own mind. 
The natural state of the universe, unmanifest.

Let go into the light, trust it, merge with it.  It is your own true nature, it is home.

The visions you experience exist only within your consciousness;
The forms they take are determined by your past attachments,
your past desires, your past fears, your past action.

These visions have no reality outside your consciousness. 
No matter how frightening some of them may seem, they cannot hurt you. 

Just let them pass through your consciousness like clouds passing through an empty sky.
Fundamentally they have no more reality than that.

Remember these teachings, remember the clear light,
The bright shining white light of your own nature, it is deathless.

No matter where or how far you wander,
the light is only a split second, a half-breath away. 
It is never too late to recognize the clear light.”