Not Afraid to Die

When my Mom decided to move to my hometown, at my request, she had been living with her cancer diagnosis for just over a year and a half. I wanted to understand all that I could about the spiritual process of dying, and so I purchased a few books that I thought would shed some light on what Mom was going through.


The most enlightening book that I read at the time was "The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying", by Sogyal Rinpoche. This book helped me to look at death and dying in a new light - so rather than looking at death with fear and uncertainty, I began to view death as a transition, or an energetic shift. I even began to recall some deep inner truths of my own. Mom and I were both going through a deep process of seeing the bigger picture.


I remember so clearly the first time she told me she was not afraid to die. I had held this belief for myself since as far back as I could remember, but I had never talked with her about this. She said that she knew where she was going, that she believed in God, and that she was even looking forward to going to Heaven. This conversation with her opened my eyes, my mind and my heart to Why I had not ever been afraid of death. For so many of my beliefs I hadn't been able to explain or back up my "theories", but in talking with Mom, I finally felt that there was some clarity to what I had believed for my entire life.


My dying Mother taught me so much about life in her last months on this earth. She was honest and open and so clear about everything, and I am so incredibly grateful that we were able to connect in this way.


This course that I've written is simply me sharing the many lessons Mom taught me, unbeknownst to her. I now yearn to share this knowledge, this honest wisdom, to whomever needs to receive it. What truly blows my mind is that my Mom would never think that others would want to hear her story, and the things she taught me. She always thought that she was an unremarkable person, but her honest, trusting, and intrinsically good nature were qualities that mean so much to the world.