The caterpillar....

I came across this old proverb today, "just as the caterpillar thought the world was over, it became a butterfly."

And how appropriate it is for Hospice Team members to meditate on this proverb. As people are living the later days of their lives (and i always prefer to speak in terms of how we live these moments, than on how we die) the fact that death is so feared is the cause of so much suffering.

A close pastor friend enjoys reminding me that we should never speak about "the end of life," but only about "the end of mortal life." We do not know what lies beyond the transition.

Faced with ignorance, presuming that the death of the mortal body corresponds to the end of the consciousness, or if you, the soul - is neither scientific, nor consistent with our observations in the world.

At the moment of death, we have seen so many times, the body in terms of matter and energy is the same, but some vital quality has departed. The simple fact that we cannot yet measure this quality, does not diminish it.

When it was impossible to measure whether the sun went around the earth, or the earth went around the sun, it was ignorance that led "science" to declare with authority that the sun went around the earth. And so it appears, some will argue today, that there is no quality that departs and transitions.

What clues do we really have on earth? For one thing all over the world, from different cultures and different geographic places, people have come to the intuitive faith that there is a life that goes beyond this mortal limit.

And we have in front of us as well, the lesson taught by the simple caterpillar. Observe life to understand life. Just as the caterpillar thought the world was over, it became a butterfly.

The great Buddhist teacher Sogyal Rinpoche, wrote of the purpose of his work, "I want every human being not to be afraid of death, or of life. I want every human being to die at peace, and surrounded by the wisest, clearest and most tender care, and to find the ultimate happiness that can only come from an understanding of the nature of mind and of reality."

This for me is the essence of Hospice, and of our mission of compassion, and of our lesson from the caterpillar .......