What the dying teach the living

The Long Now featured this extraordinary talk by Frank Ostaseski on what the dying teach the living. Ostaseski summarized the insights he’s learned from the dying as “five invitations to be present.” The five invitations are:

Don’t wait.

Welcome everything, push away nothing.

Bring your whole self to the experience.

Find a place of rest in the middle of things.

Cultivate a don’t-know mind.

It is so worth watching the whole 92-minute talk, but if you're pressed for time, jump to 1:02:25 to hear the touching story of Sono, a woman living on the streets who came to the Zen Hospice at her life’s end. Inspired by the book Japanese Death Poems, in which Buddhist Monks will traditionally write a poem on the day of their death, she wrote this beautiful poem on her deathbed:

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 prayers on the wind before you sail.

Don't be afraid.

Someone knows your coming.

An extra fish has been salted.

--Mona (Sono) Santacroce (1928-1995)