Adapted for the western vernacular by Vincent Bridges
Fear not the Transition,
for death is but a passage,
the greatest of many passing
in the course of life.
As The Preacher has said:
“Unto all things there is a season.”
The solid fabric of phenomenal reality
begins to fray and fade
from perception, the light of the world
grows dim and the breath subsides,
thoughts fall away, the subtle
continuity of consciousness
lapses. . .
And through the gap,
we come Home, again.
Release, therefore, release
all attachments to things of
this world, all entanglements,
all ties. See the people
and places you have loved,
bid them farewell and release them.
See the ones you have wronged or injured you,
forgive them and release them.
This must be done to allow the mind
to rest free of thought forms
while the senses of the body subside.
In this way the experience of the falling
away merges smoothly into a natural state
of quiescence.
When the perception of things
seen in the light of the world
begins to fade, to sink within,
then the five bodies, or elements,
begin to sink within themselves.
Earth sinks into water.
The physical sensations and awareness
of the body is absorbed in to the watery
emotions of the formative body.
Water sinks into Fire.
Thoughts and emotions are absorbed
into the fiery mythological
structures of the astral body.
Fire sinks into Air.
The vast and luminous forms of myth
are absorbed into the airy awareness
of the all-knowing psychic body.
And Air then sinks into the Ether.
Awareness is absorbed,
raindrop to the ocean,
into Mind/Spirt/Light.
Within the Mind/Spirit/Light
are images of loved ones who have
gone before, or angels and shining
Beings come to help and to welcome.
Let the light grow brighter,
blazing like the Sun and dancing
like fireflies.
Let your soul ignite, blaze up with joy,
all desires disappear, but the one desire,
more light, ever more Light,
which is granted.
The light of the noonday sun
becomes but the shrouded light
of a lamp in an opaque vessel.
All impulse toward ignorance
vanishes and the Light becomes
clear, like a deep autumn blue sky,
compared to which, the brightest light
seen in life is but a glimmer of twilight.
This is the Clear Light,
the resolution of all opposites.
Its recognition is the acknowledgment
of an old friend, the reuniting of Mother
and Son, source and its creation.
It is the return,
to our one true Home,
Mind/Spirit/Light.
In truth,
there is no part of you,
that is not of the Light.
For there is power in the Light,
there is the Light of wisdom,
and there is mercy in the Light,
for, indeed,
The Light has healing
in its wings.
Amen.