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Being ready to die includes getting over the delusion that we have ownership over our bodies. We don't. We are basically borrowing our physical existence, and we have to give it up when we're done with it, which, for most of us, is fewer than 80 or so years.
Another aspect of this is getting over our clinging to being, to experiences, to things. Being ready to die means letting go of a lot of things.
I don't know whether I've reached that point yet. I don't think so. I still have too much craving regarding things I think I should do, should have done, or things I want to do.
No, I don't think I'm ready. I still have some work to do.
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Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön
Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot
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