Quotes About Death

Both despair and euphoria about death are an evasion. Death is neither depressing nor exciting; it is simply a fact of life.

human realm, where you will experience the suffering of birth, old age, sickness, and death

Through your blessing, grace, and guidance, through the power of the light that streams from you: May all my negative karma, destructive emotions, obscurations, and blockages be purified and removed, May I know myself forgiven for all the harm I may have thought and done, May I accomplish this profound practice of phowa, and die a good and peaceful death, And through the triumph of my death, may I be able to benefit all other beings, living or dead.

The word "bardo" is commonly used to denote the intermediate state between death and rebirth, but in reality bardos are occurring continuously throughout both life and death, and are junctures when the possibility of liberation, or enlightenment, is heightened.

One central question here is whether there is any true separation between life and death, or whether it all unfolds in, and is somehow shaped by, our intimacy with and within the gap.

from the Tibetan Buddhist point of view, we can divide our entire existence into four continuously interlinked realities: (1) life, (2) dying and death, (3) after death, and (4) rebirth. These are known as the four bardos: (1) the natural bardo of this life, (2) the painful bardo of dying, (3) the luminous bardo of dharmata, and (4) the karmic bardo of becoming.

For what happens at the moment of death is that the ordinary mind and its delusions die, and in that gap the boundless sky-like nature of our mind is uncovered. This essential nature of mind is the background to the whole of life and death, like the sky, which folds the whole universe in its embrace.

Death is a natural part of life, which we will all surely have to face sooner or later. To my mind, there are two ways we can deal with it while we are alive. We can either choose to ignore it or we can confront the prospect of our own death and, by thinking clearly about it, try to minimize the suffering that it can bring.

Practice had given my master a complete knowledge of what death is, and a precise technology for guiding individuals through it.

Has my understanding of death and impermanence become so keen and so urgent that I am devoting every second to the pursuit of enlightenment? If you can answer 'yes' to both of these, then you have really understood impermanence.

death comes not as a defeat but as a triumph, the crowning and most glorious moment of life.

If there were any way of sheltering from death's blows—I am not the man to recoil from it . . . But it is madness to think that you can succeed . .

For someone who has prepared and practiced, death comes not as a defeat but as a triumph, the crowning and most glorious moment of life.

To practice death is to practice freedom. A man who has learned how to die has unlearned how to be a slave.

This existence of ours is as transient as autumn clouds. To watch the birth and death of beings is like looking at the movements of a dance. A lifetime is like a flash of lightning in the sky, rushing by like a torrent down a steep mountain.

Knowing and realizing this, shouldn't we listen to Gyalsé Rinpoche when he says: Planning for the future is like going fishing in a dry gulch; Nothing ever works out as you wanted, so give up all your schemes and ambitions. If you have got to think about something— Make it the uncertainty of the hour of your death . . .

The Buddha said: This existence of ours is as transient as autumn clouds. To watch the birth and death of beings is like looking at the movements of a dance. A lifetime is like a flash of lightning in the sky, Rushing by, like a torrent down a steep mountain.

There is only one way to heal your affliction. Go down to the city and bring me back a mustard seed from any house in which there has never been a death.

Grief made me blind and I thought that only I had suffered at the hands of death.

Death wasn't a movie where the pretty star faded away with a touch of pale makeup and every hair in place.

Well, memory can play tricks. Most people, I think, tend to remember the good rather than the bad when someone close to them dies.

The figure of Shakyamuni Buddha lying on his side to die is known as the "nirvana figure.

Jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire.

There have been hours in my unhappy life, many of them, when the contemplation of death as the end of earthly sorrow - of the grave as a resting place for the tired and worn out body - has been pleasant to dwell upon. But such contemplations vanish in the hour of peril. No man, in his full strength, can stand undismayed, in the presence of the "king of terrors." Life is dear to every living thing; the worm that crawls upon the ground will struggle for it.