My New Life Begins, and I Am Ready to Receive

In addition to min-deaths that come with glimpses of emptiness, sleep offers a deeper experience of dying before we die, and this can be understood as a kind of medium death, bringing us a step closer to the final big death that occurs when our bodies give out. Again the only real benefit comes with recognition, not with the physical event alone. Training the mind to stay aware of the entire process of falling asleep is not easy. But even making conceptual adjustments to how we relate to this daily occurrence shifts our relationship with death. For example, Tibetans have a custom of turning over their cup before going to sleep, signifying not just the end of the day, but the end of one’s life. In the morning, we first think, “I am alive, I can see, I can hear, I can feel.” Then we turn the cup right-side up: “My new life begins, and I am ready to receive.” In the morning, the mind is very fresh, and just one moment of appreciation for being alive can orient our whole day and remind us of the continual cycle of living and dying.

Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche
from In Love with the World; What a Monk Can Teach You About Living from Nearly Dying