Perfect endings - a conscious approach to dying and death

179 Pages·1998·1.581 MB·English

by  Sachs, Robert

PERF ECT
ENDI NG S

PERFECT
EN DI NGS
A Conscious Approach
to Dying and Death
ROBERT SACHS
Healing Arts Press
Rochester, Vermont
Healing Arts Press
One Park Street
Rochester, Vermont 05767
www.gotoit.com
Copyright © 1998 by Robert Sachs
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in
any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including
photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval
system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Sachs, Robert.
Perfect endings : a conscious approach to dying and death / Robert Sachs.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 0-89281-779-8 (pbk.: alk. paper)
1. Death—Psychological aspects. 2. Terminally ill—Psychology.
3. Terminally ill—Family relationships. 4. Death—Psychological aspects—
Case studies. 5. Terminally ill—Psychology—Case studies.
6. Terminally ill—Family relationships—Case studies. I. Title.
BF789.D4S24 1998
97-52064
155.9’37—dc21
CIP
Printed and bound in the Canada
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
This book was typeset in Minion
Healing Arts Press is a division of Inner Traditions International
Distributed to the book trade in Canada by Publishers Group West (PGW),
Toronto
Distributed to the book trade in the United Kingdom by Deep Books,
London
Distributed to the book trade in Australia by Gemcraft Books, Burwood
Distributed to the book trade in New Zealand by Tandem Press, Auckland
Distributed to the booktrade in South Africa by Alternative Books, Ferndale
With the passing of my father came a healing and renewal
of the bonds of love I have with my mother, Thelma,
and my two sisters, Joanne and Jacqualine.
This book is dedicated to them.

Contents
Foreword...........................................................ix
Preface...............................................................xi
Introduction......................................................1
1. My Father.......................................................13
2. Pain As the Path..............................................48
3. Living in Radiance..........................................72
4. “Not the Same Person Anymore”...................84
5. Time and Timing:
A Case of Auspicious Coincidence ............ 113
6. Practical Matters.......................................... 145
7. Moments of Imminence................................155
References......................................................162
Resources.......................................................163

Foreword
When there is pain and illness and deterioration in
one’s life, can we say that things are just as they are
supposed to be? Could this be so? Or is it just a spiritual
rationalization for a fate no one wants to accept?
In this sensitively spoken book, author Robert Sachs
allows us to be privy to the inner process of dying and
death for those individuals with whom he worked pro-
fessionally as a hospice social worker and personally as
a spiritual guide and friend, including his own father.
Each person’s journey through the dying experience
depicts the transformation from pain and suffering to
dwelling in a more interior landscape inside oneself. To
journey in this territory with these souls and see how
each masters the task of letting go of life as we know it,
and ultimately the body itself, is a holographic glimpse
of a barely chartered frontier. As with all stages of life, we
move developmentally, mastering the tasks specific to
that stage before moving on to the next. Each stage of
life both challenges and prompts us toward a continuing
evolution of tapping into a wider dimension of our
being. The stage of dying is rarely considered one of the
steps toward expansion but is usually seen as the lid that
closes this process. Shedding the limited human beliefs
that death is the end of life is clearly one of the tasks of
the stage of dying and death. Perfect Endings masterfully
ix