One day as I was about to step on a dry leaf, I saw the leaf in the ultimate dimension. I saw that it was not really dead, but that it was merging with the moist soil in order to appear on the tree the following spring in another form. I smiled at the leaf and said, "You are pretending." Everything is pretending to be born and pretending to die, including that leaf. The Buddha said, "When conditions are sufficient, the body reveals itself, and we say the body exists. When conditions are not sufficient, the body cannot be perceived by us, and we say the body does not exist." The day of our "death" is a day of our continuation in many other forms.
O Great, Holy Spirit, I take this step into the day you have
given...I hold all those I will meet today, in my journeying and in
my work. I try to walk gently on this earth. Let me walk gently
through the lives of my work companions and friends. Though
they make way for my passing, may they spring back, neither
broken nor bruised.