Zen short story: Death can never be controlled by any part of God's creation, at all. Only God controls death.

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The Zen master, Rushold Doski, was talking to his students about death. He was getting old himself now, and he said to his students, that his own time will soon come. "Nobody, but nobody, can ever totally control death," he told them. "Why is it that no spiritual master, has ever conquered death?" he asked them. Then he answered his own question like this: "Death is unconquerable to all, as the body embraces it, in its own time, and you live in the body, until you die, without reservations, as no real master can control their body totally, as it remains a foreign body that you inhabit, and it has a life of its own, independent of you." "We only borrow our body. It is not the real us." "Some of us masters, though, can work with our body, in such a way, as to let go of it more, or less, at our own time, as for some intents and purposes, our soul does control our body, up to a point, keeping it going, in one way, or another, until the soul's mission is completed." "But, once gone, we cannot come back, no matter what anyone else might tell to you." "Some masters might claim this:" "We can become so aware that we know when life has completed its cycle within our body, and so we just leave it, at that time."  "But no, only God decides on when he will call each soul home. The rest remains mere speculation, and guesswork of the person, or soul involved. Nobody can take this insider's knowledge away from God." "Ok, my own time is now. Goodbye all, and he died." The students were left perplexed then, about his death. "How did he know that God was calling him home right then?" they asked each other. We all hear God's call at our rightful time, and the master had heard God's call for himself, and gave this little talk, quickly, as he knew that he was about to die. Photo Credit: The photo used in this article was sourced from the free media site, pixabay.com The master seemed to have died at his own time, but really he had been just aware of God's voice calling him home.