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| excerpt from Chapter 11, Heart Advice on Helping the Dying The most essential thing in life is to establish an unafraid, heartfelt communication with others, and it is never more important than with a dying person... Often the dying person feels reserved and insecure, and is not sure of your intentions when you first visit. So don't feel anything extraordinary is supposed to happen, just be natural and relaxed, be yourself. Often dying people do not say what they want or mean, and the people close to them do not know what to say or do. It's hard to find out what they might be trying to say, or even what they might be hiding. Sometimes not even they know. So the first essential thing is to relax any tension in the atmosphere in whatever way comes most easily and naturally. Once trust and confidence have been established, the atmosphere becomes relaxed and this will allow the dying person to bring up the things he or she really wants to talk about. Encourage the person warmly to feel as free as possible to express thoughts, fears, and emotions about dying and death. This honest and unshrinking baring of emotion is central to any possible transformation - of coming to terms with life or dying a good death - and you must allow the person complete freedom, and give your full permission to say whatever he or she wants. When the dying person is finally communicating his or her most private feelings, do not interrupt, deny, or diminish what the person is saying. The terminally ill or dying are in the most vulnerable situation of their lives, and you will need all your skill and resources of sensitivity, and warmth, and loving compassion to enable them to reveal themselves. Learn to listen, and learn to receive in silence: an open, calm silence that makes the other person feel accepted. Be as relaxed as you can, be at ease; sit there with your dying friend or relative as if you had nothing more important or enjoyable to do. |
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| A dying person most needs to be shown as unconditional a love as
possible, released from all expectations. Don't think you have to be an
expert in any way. Be natural, be yourself, be a true friend, and the
dying person will be reassured that you are really with them,
communicating with them simply and as an equal, as one human being to
another. |
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| It is essential that we care enough to try, and that we reassure that
person that whatever he or she may be feeling, whatever his or her
frustration and anger, it is normal. Dying will bring out many repressed
emotions: sadness or numbness or guilt, or even jealousy of those who are
still well. Help the person not to repress these emotions when they rise.
Be with the person as the waves of pain and grief break; with acceptance,
time, and patient understanding, the emotions slowly subside and return
the dying person to that ground of serenity, calm, and sanity that is most
deeply and truly theirs. Don't try to be too wise; don't always try to search for something profound to say. You don't have to do or say anything to make things better. Just be there as fully as you can. And if you are feeling a lot of anxiety and fear, and don't know what to do, admit that openly to the dying person and ask his or her help. This honesty will bring you and the dying person closer together, and help in opening up a freer communication. Sometimes the dying know far better than we how they can be helped, and we need to know how to draw on their wisdom and let them give to us what they know. |
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THE TIBETAN BOOK OF LIVING AND DYING Chapter 3: Reflection and Change |
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