River's Chi House

Notes from the Open Path are short contemplations written by Elias Amidon on aspects of "the Open Path" - an approach to living whole-heartedly and in clear awareness. If  you would like to receive Notes from the Open Path directly, send an email to openpath@sufiway.org with that request. December, 2010 Coming to Terms with Death A woman recently asked me for a spiritual practice that would help her “come to terms” with her serious cancer. I gave her a number of practices that I trust will be of benefit. But her request is still present with me – perhaps because all my life “coming to terms” with my own and others’ dying has been an ever-recurring theme. What are death’s terms? We can believe all sorts of things about this: judgment, heaven, hell, reincarnation, annihilation, nirvana – but what do we know for sure? Perhaps the only thing we can know for sure is death’s inevitability. What death is, in itself, remains a mystery. And can we even say that death is? ...