Quid est somnus gelidae nisi mortis imago?
(Ovid, Amores 2.9.41)

What is sleep if not the image of chilly death?

(pron = kwid ehst SOHM-noos gheh-LEE-dai NEE-see MOR-tis ih-MAH-goh)

Comment: I heard a Zen teaching recently that suggested that we learn to enjoy
our out-breath. The suggestion follows on an observation that we usually enjoy
the feeling of breathing in. The teaching suggests that it is important to
learn to enjoy our out-breath, as one day it will be an out-breath that leads us
from this dimension into the next.

Hence, Ovid's observation that sleep is an image of death is another point in
this way of thinking about death. Every time we lie down to sleep (which most
of us enjoy doing) is a kind of practice toward that day when lying down one
last time will lead us from this dimension to the next dimension.

Is all of this too much for a Monday morning reflection? If that is the way it
feels, maybe we need to practice--the joy of letting a breath go; the joy of
letting an attachment go; the joy of letting a loved one go in order to lead
his/her life without our controls or maniplations. These are all practice.
The
transition from this dimension to the next is letting . . . go--allowing to go.