How Would You Like to Die?

A few years ago, a dying friend read me some lines from the Hindu epic the Mahabharata. They made me smile. Virtuous King Yudhistara (the son of Yama, the Lord of Death) is asked, “What is the most wondrous thing in the world?” And Yudhistara replies, “The most wondrous thing in the world is that all around us people can be dying and we don’t believe it can happen to us.”

In teaching care of the dying, I often begin by asking [three] questions that explore our stories around death, including the legacies we may have inherited from culture and family. Looking at our stories may help us be taught by what we believe will happen when we are dying, and open new possibilities for us.

Question #1: What is your worst case-scenario of how you will die?

Question #2: What is your best-case scenario of how you will die?

Question #3: What could you do in order to help affect the death envisioned in Question #2?

Joan Halifax
with light editing from Being with Dying; Cultivating Compassion and Fearlessness in the Presence of Death