death...

Death swept into the flat last night, and departed with the essence of Mephistophales the Blue Beta...

I found him this morning floating at the bottom of his bowl, and I was especially distraught given his recent improvement in health.


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A Teaching on the Nature of Death by Zen Master Hofaku:


Once master Hofaku called his monks together and said: "This last week my energy has been draining - no cause for worry. It is just that death is near."

A monk asked: "You are about to die! What does it mean? We will go on living. And what does that mean?"

"They are both the way of things," the master replied.

"But how can I understand two such different states?"

Hofaku answered: "When it rains it pours," and then calmly dies.

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All composite things are impermanent,
They are subject to birth and death;
Put an end to birth and death,
And there is a blissful tranquillity.
-The Gatha of Impermanence

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Nothing in the cry
of cicadas suggests they
are about to die
-Basho