happy easter

it's a beautiful easter morning here.

last nite, i hit the section on death in
the book i'm reading and thought it was
appropriate timing.

thought it would be cool to post a tid bit
on both dying and living here this morning....

i read this and nodded to myself, knowing
that i could absolutely give this a shot.
>>>>>>>>>>

'the french renaissance philosopher michel
de montaigne advised people to 'practice death.'
'to begin depriving death of its greatest
advantage over us,' he wrote, 'let us deprive
death of its strangeness, let us frequent it,
let us get used to it; let us have nothing more
often in mind than death...we do not know
where death awaits us; so let us wait for it
everywhere. to practice death is to practice
freedom. a man who has learned how to die has
unlearned how to be a slave.'

...he means that we can practice death
by becoming conscious of the ways in which we
resist life; we can practice death by approaching
endings and partings and changes with more ease
and faith.....practicing dying is indeed the
practice of freedom.'

.............(earlier in the book she's got this)

'i have trained myself now - when something is not
going my way, and i feel rising up within me a big,
hard NO! - to take a breath or two, and to counter
that no with a different counsel. i tell myself to
'die to it.' sometimes just saying that little phrase
is all i need to do to clear my head of the emotional
storm clouds. what must die? any resistance to the
bigger truth. any holding on by that part of me -
my little ego part - that cannot see beyond its own
nose. if the situation involves another person who
appears to be getting in the way of what i want -
even if that person is being led around by the nose
of his or her little ego - it is still only necessary
for me to 'die to it.' when i can clearly see the
whole picture, then i'm free to choose wisely my own
next steps.

practicing dying means living as close to reality as
we can in each moment. it is the ultimate bravery.
the spiritual warrior stands undefended before the truth-
not some concept about the truth but the stripped-down
reality of the most mundane, day to day situations.
....try it. next time you are at work and you feel anger
rising up to meet a situation that you think is outrageous
or unfair or inept, tell yourself to 'die to it.'
take a few meditative breaths and get your little ego out
of the way. size up the whole story, and not just what
you think should be.....

and then she quotes ram dass -
when we practice dying we are learning to identify less
with ego and more with soul.'

and she finishes with 'who would want to be an ego when
we can be a soul?

ahhhh...all this felt to me like easter stuff.

and so i thought i'd post it here and wish everyone
a happy easter filled with soul stuff....