Perfect Endings:
   A Conscious Approach to Dying and Death
   Robert Sachs
  1998 Healing Arts Press, Rochester VT USA
   ISBN: 0892817798


With lucidity & compassion we are shown how the death experience is an expansion into a wider dimension of our being. As we move through our dying process, all the strength & wisdom we have gained in our lifetime is called forth.

In a series of stories that give us glimpses into the inner workings of how we die, Robert Sachs, who works as a professional hospice counsellor, offers us a bouquet of transforming moments that led each person to their interior landscape. We are gifted the journeying in tandem with these souls & given different solutions to the task of letting go of life.

This is an invaluable guide for caregivers, family members & those facing the last great change in their lives.

As our Poppa proceeded along his final path, Perfect Endings came to my hand & I read from it in small, devout doses, in between the watches when I couldn't sleep for the vast ideas flooding through my mind like a soundless, cosmic flight.

In the practice of conscious dying, it has been said that it is best to familiarize oneself with "the clear light" - that it represents the highest possible state we can achieve in our dying. That's all well & good yet according to our prior experiences & comfort levels it may be we are more ready for a less intense, even darker light. At this finale the last thing we need is to feel as if we're failing yet one more test - so be careful & aware about pushing toward an ideal or expectation.

In counseling survivors of someone who has died in their presence, it is almost impossible to reassure them that their death was not painful - for death is not in & of itself painful - although we cannot deny the passing was traumatic.

This is why death preparation is part of life education in many cultures. We cannot judge a death as terrible for it was the perfect conclusion to what the person had learned in life. A death may be horrific & heart-wrenching to witness yet we are reminded by this wise & gentle writer, that nothing is ever lost. Who knows how such events serve us in bringing us to where we end up next & what the tasks in the next step may be.

Robert Sachs writes about Pain As the Path; Living in Radiance; “Not the Same Person Anymore”; Time and Timing; Practical Matters & Moments of Imminence. He illustrates cultural expectations, emotional habits & compassionate witnessing to the end.

A deeply comforting little paperback, perfect for pockets, to be read in the eye of the storm as well as in the backwaters when all is done & the last breath taken.

Also from Robert Sachs: The Complete Guide to Nine Star Ki, Health for Life: Secrets of Tibetan Ayurveda & Rebirth into Pure Land.
(11/28/99)

Rebecca