Writing on the Subject of:

On death denial:

In that marvelous Indian epic poem, the Mahabharata, the sage Yudhisthira is asked:
     "Of all things in life, what is the most amazing?
Yudhisthira answers:
     "That a man, seeing others die all around him, never thinks he will die.

On learning of the death of her guru, Swami Muktananda:

I walked around in a daze. To sit was more painful, so I kept moving. Hundreds of people were now up and about, and each seemed to he encased in a cocoon of shock. Some dropped in limp bundles to the floor to chant, unable to move. Others were vigorously sweeping away dust and debris from the demolition work going on within a few feet of the chanters. The drone of the chant seemed to contain the pain of the universe. I followed what others were doing. First I chanted, and then, when that wasn't right, I swept.
The air was thick with grace. Grace moved in the form of people I thought had limitations. For once, their karmic baggage was suspended, their egos not in view. The limiting concepts that usually gave form to my perception of others - and myself- had dissolved. All I saw was light. Each and every particle of air was illumined. My mind was totally still. Inside I felt a liquid pool of clear, crystalline light. My heart felt pregnant with the very joy of being alive and present to each second. It was akin to those clear, titillating moments of free-floating adoration one can feel in flashes as an adolescent. But this time the love didn't require an object. It only had to be relished for its own sake; its origin and its destination resided now in the space between my own own heartbeats. Each moment was pristine and to be savored simply because it was.

Death is natural, quotes from Taoist sage Lai and from Japanese Death Poems:

When the Taoist sage Lai was on the verge of death, another sage asked him, "Great is the Maker of Things! What will become of you now? Where will he send you?" Lai replied, "A child who obeys his lather and mother will go wherever they tell him to go-east, west, south, or north. Yin and yang, the elements of nature, are they not to a man like father and mother? If I were not to obey them now that they have brought me to the point of death, how wayward i should be. They are not to be blamed. The great earth burdens me with a body, forces upon me the toil of life, eases me in old age, and calms me in death. If life is good, death is good also. If an ironsmith were casting metal and the metal were to jump up and say, ~Make me into the best of all swords!' the ironsmith would regard it as a bad omen. Now that my human form is decomposing, were I to say,' I want to be a man! Nothing but a man!' the Maker of Things would think me most unworthy. Heaven and earth are a great forge and the Maker of Things is a master ironsmith. Can the place he is sending me to be the wrong place?"

On the Buddhist tradition of seeing death as just another moment in a continuum:

One who dies lusting for life in this world or for salvation in the next is not enlightened. In the Zen tradition, to die is nothing special.

From the Wheel of Live and Death by Phillip Kapleau on the Zen Master Taji treating death as just another moment:

Senior disciples assembled at his bedside as Zen Master Taji approached death. One of them, remembering the master was fond of a certain kind of cake, had spent half a day searching the pastry shops of Tokyo for this confection, which he now presented to him. With a wan smile the dying master accepted a piece of the cake and slowly began munching it. As he grew weaker, his disciples inquired whether he had any final words for them.
"Yes," the master replied.
The disciples leaned forward eagerly so as not to miss a word.
"Please tell us!"
"My, but this cake is delicious!" And with that he slipped away.