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    “All of our emotions have value, and as unpleasant as some are, they’re reminders that we’re alive and have a whole lot going on inside.  Why not approach life with curiosity and wonder, instead of dread and fear.  We don’t avoid movies because we know they’ll end.  We enjoy the journey they take us on.  Our journey is life, and no one makes it out alive; the finish is death, so let’s enjoy life while we can, with those we love, while they’re still here.” ~ Humble the Poet, Things No One Else Can Teach Us (Page 46)

      “It is not impermanence that makes us suffer.  What makes us suffer is wanting things to be permanent, when they are not.”

      Thich Nhat Hanh | Read Matt’s Blog on this Quote ➜

      Leonardo Da Vinci Quote on Happy Death

        “As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so a life well spent brings happy death.”

        Leonardo da Vinci

        Beyond the Quote (12/365)

        At the end of every day, when you lay your head down on your pillow, there are usually a few moments of reflection.  Sometimes the movie of your mind plays memories from the day, or replays situations that you might have acted on differently, or even anticipates the things that are to come.  Sometimes these thoughts and reflections leave you feeling dissatisfied and sometimes they leave you feeling accomplished.  When you pay attention to, and are mindful of, the average feeling of how you spent the time of your days, then you can start to navigate, and get in tune with, the direction and path of your life.

        Read More »Leonardo Da Vinci Quote on Happy Death

          “We often conduct our life as though it’s going to last forever.  With this attitude, we want everything.  The fact of death puts a limit on what we can have, what we can do.  We don’t need to think about death all the time, but to ponder it, to contemplate it, gives us perspective and inspiration about living our life.  It also makes us less spoiled.  It makes us look at the balance of our life and determine what needs to come first.  What is important to me?  How shall I use my life?  We’re able to enter situations more openly once we’ve related with death.  It makes our love more powerful.” ~ Sakyong Mipham, Turning the Mind Into An Ally (Page 156)

            “Impermanence is always pounding at the door.  Of course, acknowledging impermanence doesn’t mean we get permanence.  It means we’re more in tune with reality; we can relax.  As we relinquish our attachment to permanence, pain begins to diminish because we’re no longer fooled.  Accepting impermanence means that we spend less energy resisting reality.  Our suffering has a more direct quality.  We’re no longer trying to avoid it.  We see that impermanence is a river that runs through life, not a rock that stands in the way.  We see that because we resist impermanence, pain and suffering are constants.  We realize that pain comes from our desire for permanence.” ~ Sakyong Mipham, Turning the Mind Into An Ally (Page 147)

              “Only the young think they aren’t dying, or that aging is something that affects other people.” ~ John Leland, Happiness is a Choice You Make (Page 211)

                “To accept death was to accept life, and to accept life was to live in joy, however dire the circumstances around you.” ~ John Leland, Happiness is a Choice You Make (Page 163)

                  “What I came to realize with John was that accepting death—wishing for it, even—didn’t devalue the days he had left, but made each count more because they were so few.  It freed him to live in the things he liked, not agonizing over what he would do if he could.  This was why talking about wanting to die could cheer him up.  Death gave everything its value.  The number of times he would see this or that friend was limited, so each time was precious.  The moments were supersaturated, not fleeting as they are in youth.” ~ John Leland, Happiness is a Choice You Make (Page 151)

                    “I have no feeling of an afterlife at all.  As a matter of fact, I hope not.  I can’t imagine anything going on forever.  I miss Walter and I wish I could meet him in another life, but I know I won’t.  Actually, it’s rather soothing.  It is all going to end; I don’t see anything wrong with that.” ~ John Sorensen, Happiness is a Choice You Make (Page 83)

                      “I often feel that death is not the enemy of life, but its friend, for it is the knowledge that our years are limited which makes them so precious.” ~ Rabbi Joshua L. Leibman, via Happiness is a Choice You Make (Page 46)

                        “A starting point for wisdom at any age might be to accept that you’re going to die—really accept it—and to feel more contented by the limits, not less.  Modern medicine encourages us to consider death a test we can win or lose, something presided over by experts in white coats.  But the elders offered a wiser perspective.  None of us will get out of here alive, so we might as well live while we can.” ~ John Leland, Happiness is a Choice You Make (Page 45)

                          “I don’t think that people realize that you’re not supposed to go peacefully.  After I came out of almost dying, it really dawned on me how distorted people’s concept of dying is because they think that if they can go peacefully that that means that they’ve lived a good life.  That if you can just let it go and you can be completely detached to the outcome, that that means you’re more spiritually enlightened, or that you’re doing it better, or that you’ve had a better life—the truth is, the whole point of dying is to be scared.  Because that means that your life meant something to you.  You should fear dying.  You should be terrified of it.  Even though it’s natural, even though it’s going to happen, even though you should come to terms with it in a certain way and go through the feeling of it and have a relationship with it—you also should acknowledge the fact that when it’s going to happen, no matter how much you prepare, you’re going to be terrified.  Because life does mean something.  And there’s a part of your brain that knows you’re letting it go.  And you’re always going to grieve that when it happens.  And that’s okay.  It’s okay to be terrified.” ~ Claire Wineland, YouTube

                            “No matter how spiritually enlightened you are, or how many times you’ve thought about death and think you’re okay with it, you will grieve the life you could’ve lived when you’re dying.  You’re losing the person you could’ve become, the things you could’ve done, the things you could’ve made with your life—you’re losing that.  And there’s no way to get around that.” ~ Claire Wineland, YouTube

                              “I am not opposed to people thinking about death, or processing it, or questioning it—I think that’s wonderful.  What I am opposed to is this notion that you can somehow do death properly.  For me, there was no amount of preparation, no amount of thinking about death, wondering what it felt like, coming to terms with what it means, questioning the great beyond—none of that meant jack sh*t when I actually was dying.” ~ Claire Wineland, YouTube

                                “Death is actually not a scary thing.  The scary thing is living life without a passion and then realizing at the very last moment that it’s over and you haven’t done what you wanted to do—and that you’re not proud of your life.  That is much more terrifying.” ~ Claire Wineland (15), TEDxMalibu

                                  “I was dying.  And I couldn’t gain any kind of control on the situation.  There was no, ‘mind over matter-ing’ it for me.  My lungs were failing.  And I got hit with this huge wave of grief.  Which is not something that I had expected.  As someone who had always known that I would die young—and I had always accepted that and been okay with that—I was expecting maybe some fear, maybe some hesitation, maybe to turn into a 5-year-old then cry and want my mom… But I wasn’t expecting grief.  And what I felt grief for wasn’t the fact that I was dying, it wasn’t about fear of the unknown, it was none of that.  I felt grief for the life I could’ve lived.  I felt grief for life itself.  For all of the possibilities that it held.  And I was mad at myself.  I spent, literally, 30 minutes as my CO2 levels were rising and I slowly started to hallucinate, being thoroughly pissed at myself for waiting around for the world to tell me I was okay even though I was sick.  For waiting around for someone to tell me that I was healthy enough, that I was better enough, I was good enough to live a life that I wanted to live.  I wish that I yelled at every single person that had come into the room and said that they were sorry for me.” ~ Claire Wineland (20), EEM LA 2018