meditation on death

"The disciple who devotes himself to this contemplation of death is always vigilant, takes no delight in any form of existence, gives up hankering after life, censures evil doing, is free from craving as regards the requisites of life, his perception of impermanence becomes established, he realizes the painful and soulless nature of existence and at the moment of death he is devoid of fear, and remains mindful and self-possessed. Finally, if in this present life he fails to attain to Nibbana, upon the dissolution of the body he is bound for a happy destiny."

Visuddhimagga

Ideas in Action - HH Dalai Lama

The Mountain from TSO Photography on Vimeo.

the cord of communion

"I sometimes have a queer feeling with regard to you - especially when you are near me, as now: it is as if I have a string somewhere under my left ribs, tightly and inextricably knotted to a similar string situated in the corresponding quarter of your little frame. And if that boisterous Channel, and two hundred miles or so of land come broad between us, I am afraid that the cord of communion will snapped; and then I've a nervous notion I should take to bleeding inwardly. As for you, you'd forget me."

Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre