The Native American View on Life & Death
You live on earth only for a few short years
which you call an incarnation,
and then you leave your body as an outworn dress
and go for refreshment to your true home in the spirit.
~ White Eagle
So live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart.
Trouble no one about their religion; respect others in their view, and demand that they respect yours.
Love your life, perfect your life, beautify all things in your life.
Seek to make your life long and its purpose in the service of your people.
Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide.
Always give a word or a sign of salute when meeting or passing a friend, even a stranger, when in a lonely place.
Show respect to all people and grovel to none.
When you arise in the morning give thanks for the food and for the joy of living.
If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies only in yourself.
Abuse no one and no thing, for abuse turns the wise ones to fools and robs the spirit of its vision.
When it comes your time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death,
so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way.
Sing your death song and die like a hero going home.
~ Chief Tecumseh (Crouching Tiger) Shawnee Nation 1768-1813
Buddha’s View on Life & Death
The secret of health for both mind and body
is not to mourn for the past,
not to worry about the future,
or not to anticipate troubles,
but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly.
~ Buddha
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on Saturday, February 5th, 2011 at 11:09 pm and is filed under Poems, Quotations.
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