You will begin to hear your voice changing. That voice is who you are becoming in the face of mortality. Listen to that voice. It will be the purest, most authentic version of you that you have ever known. Bring that person into the world — strengths and vulnerabilities and everything between. Be that person forever.

Jeff Tomczek, The Things I Wish I Were Told When I Was Diagnosed With Cancer

Despite not having had to face a potentially terminal diagnosis (other than being born) this resonates a lot for me, particularly in terms of when I got cracked open, or you could say dhamma became life (and thus confronted ego death?), and how that significantly changes one’s perspective and can, unfortunately, be very isolating. I would add to this quote “be that person forever, forever new and changing.”

aheartofzen: Aware of my life beginning at my birth and ending with my death, I breathe in. Seeing that I was already present before my birth in many forms and that I shall be present when I die in many different forms (the sun, the water, the air, the earth, ancestors, descendants, habits, society. economics), I breathe out. My beginning, my ending No beginning, no ending Exercise 31.7, “Looking Deeply,” The Blooming of a Lotus: Guided Meditation Exercises for Healing and Transformation, Thich Nhat Hanh (1993). Lovely. Thank you for sharing with us.
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aheartofzen:

Aware of my life beginning at my birth and ending with my death,
I breathe in.

Seeing that I was already present before my birth in many forms and that I shall be present when I die in many different forms (the sun, the water, the air, the earth, ancestors, descendants, habits, society. economics), I breathe out.

My beginning, my ending

No beginning, no ending

Exercise 31.7, “Looking Deeply,” The Blooming of a Lotus: Guided Meditation Exercises for Healing and Transformation, Thich Nhat Hanh (1993).

Lovely. Thank you for sharing with us.