Death Rehearsal

All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players; -from the play “As You Like It” by Shakespeare

“The true philosopher lives his life as a dress rehearsal for death.” -Socrates

“Rehearse your death every morning and night. Only when you constantly live as though already a corpse (jōjū shinimi) will you be able to find freedom.” -Yamamoto Tsunetomo, Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai

“While I thought that I was learning how to live, I have been learning how to die.” -Leonardo da Vinci

“In the end is my beginning.” -T.S. Eliot

We’re not the authors of the play called Life and Death.

We’re merely the players.

So let us look upon every living day as a rehearsal.

For the big opening night. Death.

On that night when they call “Places”, we’re ready. We leave all our rehearsal work behind. We let go. We step out on that stage.

And then it begins.