Case 55 of the Blue Cliff Record

Dharma talk about death, by John Tarrant:

"In the early days of his illness when I spoke to Gregory Willms about dying, I said, 'How's it feel to be dying?' He said, 'Everybody's dying. I just know my schedule.' That's true. We all die. What we're haggling about is the timing and what we will give up. There's no need to wait to decide to give things up. No need to worry about the objects at all. Let's just give up our prejudices and our ideas right now. Give up that kind of clinging we have that closes the heart. If you look into your heart when you do zazen, you can see whether it's open or it's closed. If it's open, you'll be okay. If it's closed, it doesn't matter how clever you are, you won't be okay. There it is."