Die While Alive: A Zen Meditation on Death

"Die While Alive" is an exploration of the ways in which we can understand the ultimate nature of life and death, and approach our own death as something we can look at without fear, despair, denial, or any of the avoidance strategies we are so used to.Life is our daily experience. Death on the other hand is something totally dark and terrifying. In our minds we have separated life and death, and placed an unbridgeable chasm between them. Almost all the books and articles written about death and dying are really about the dying part. They bring us no closer to truly understanding death. It remains the great mystery.But there is a path to an understanding of death itself, the final destination. There are ways and practices that can bring one to the very edge of life and death. They are not drugs or near death experiences. Rather they are efforts to experience the Great Death-a dropping away of body and mind to the point where there is almost no barrier between life and death. In our own minds and in our lives we can teach ourselves to approach death in life. It is only through such a practice and understanding that we have at least a chance to face death unafraid and with a degree of equanimity.It is possible to walk so close the edge of life and death that they can be seen as two sides of the same reality. "Die While Alive" invites the reader, to explore the path along that edge.