In the bardo

If I am waiting for someone to say or do something so that I can be happy, then I inhabit a purgatorial state. Waiting is dying.

On death

We are born to die. We die as we live. Today, then, describes our death. Some men are blown out like candles. Others convulse and cry out. A few depart lucid and lit.

Death and dying

Death is the falling away of everything we don’t need—our traditions, beliefs, habits, hopes, memories, worries, fears, resentments, five-year plans, medications, opinions, cultural associations, club memberships, loyalties, animosities, calculations, the voice in the head that interprets, judges, discriminates, rejects, invites and analyzes.

This falling away is already happening—as I write this, as you read it.

Top three terminators

1. Cancer
2. Heart disease
3. Iatrogenesis

Number three? Pills and procedures.