1. The Third Messenger Death
No comments here. Hold the intention in mind.
Intention:
- accepting the inevitability of death
- Be prepared for death and dying: materially and emotionally and spiritually
- being able to welcome the fourth messenger – to know there is a pathway out of the suffering
The Third Messenger

2. Check-in What are you finding challenging about the Five Wishes?
Bill leads 5 minutes

3. Preparing for Death Cultivating wisdom Applying energy
Living virtuously – blamelessly
Sustaining favorable relationships
Being kind
Keeping a journal of wholesome actions
Ayya – 10 minutes
Four powers and five fears –AN 9:5
Preparing for death is a lifetime practice
Bill : Thinking in and out of the boxes: don’t wait to live kindly and virtuously

4. Preparing for Dying Health insurance Palliative care and hospice
“Having THE CONVERSATION”
POLST – Physician Orders Life Sustaining Treatment
Advance Care Planning
Advance Directives
Bill – 10 minutes
ADVANCE CARE PLANNING
Organizing medical team (doctors, nurses, counselors), other trained personnel and support team: may be friends not family
What is Palliative Care
What is Hospice
POLST appropriate when “no one would be surprised if you died in the next 12 months”
What makes your life worth living? What’s it all about, Alfie?
You will be a different person when you are actively dying than you are now when you are making decisions, can change mind
Trust goodness – there is good karma
Be kind to yourself as well as others
2 DYING v DEATH
When do you start planning as a person who is dying
Stages of dying: End Game
Preparing for death does not make death happen faster
Use of denial

5. Being with our own death
Decisions about care
Managing symptoms
Assisted dying?
Setting a clear intention
Coming to peace
Bill – 10 minutes plus 3 minutes for Ayya
when do you change from prolonging life to QOL: boxes; End Game Strategy as in chess
Care decisions: curative care v life prolonging care palliative care, hospice care
Symptoms: Can use various medical systems: acupuncture, homeopathy, naturopathy; value is often provider dependent: QOL AS GOAL
NEVER A POINT WHERE NOTHING CAN BE DONE in treating person though disease treatments may not be beneficial i.e. futile
Patient Example: Control over life, control over death: Doctor’s father, went thru process to obtain drugs, she asked him daily whether he wants to explore self medication as End of Life Options Act. Ultimately became unable to swallow and had AND Allow Natural Death
BOTH Dealing with: Body, Others, Truth, Humility
Ayya : Setting intention and coming to peace

6. Being with death Nothing to fear Mindfulness of body and feeling
Focus on inconstancy, dissolution, dispassion, cessation and relinquishment
Ayya – 5 minutes total 45 minutes
This works for being with one’s own death or the death of another
“Death is perfectly safe”
SN36:7 in “Beyond Coping” page 109: Mindfulness of the body and feeling ... Focused on impermanence, disenchantment, dispassion, cessation and relinquishment

7. Meditation
10 minutes
Ayya – passage from SN 36:7

8. Small Group Discussion
What makes my life worth living?
If you knew you were going to die one month from today, what would you do?
25 minutes

9. Discussion 25 minutes Forgiveness for ourselves and others
Loving kindness and compassion for ourselves and others
Letting go of attachment to possessions, people and who we think we are
Serenity meditation – developing joy, happiness and tranquility
Insight meditation – seeing the way things actually are
Keeping a journal of kind and generous actions
Developing faith

10. Parting Instructions What does faith mean to you?
Reflect on your experience of awakening, of liberation from suffering
Serenity and insight meditation
Readings
Bring images of serenity, awakening or faith
Kalyāṇamitta group?
10 minutes