Use the metaphor of your physical death as the “source” to which we return. Is death only seen as a dreadful event or does it invite new possibilities? What are the properties of death (silence, stillness, space, release of suffering, the burden gone, perhaps being without doing)? Is this so different than the Buddha pointing to the deathless as the fruit of practice? Pick out a property of death and press it to your heart. Let it guide and inform your life. For example, stillness may be a property of death. Let the word “stillness” enter your body and mind. See if living with the word informs how needlessly noisy you are, how much commotion and drama you encourage. What frightens you about being still? Is this similar to the fear you have of death?
