You are writing a book on the experiences you have had with the dying. I have been privileged to know many people who have come to deep levels of insight as they approach death. Their wisdom is the wisdom of the ages, but their lives are often very ordinary. Somehow, without any special preparation or practice history, there often comes a very acute spiritual understanding. Through their stories and the exercises in the book, I attempt to make the lessons from the dying our own.
People have so many ideas about how to die.
Often people who think they are spiritual have the most difficult time dying because they keep bypassing their very human experiences for spiritual reassurances. In hospice care, we call this dysfunctional theology. A person uses their practice to take them away from their humanness. They falsely believe that to be spiritual means they will die with love in their hearts or some other misconception. They can't tolerate what they really feel because it doesn't conform to their ideas about practicing all these years.