"Any chance we could stop by my broker's house?"

For most, death comes when one least expects it. It always comes when you are right in the middle of doing something. 

The thing is that death is happening in this very moment. It is happening at every moment of every day. But most think that it will happen to them some time down the road - in some distant future. 

Consider one's own breathing.... It consists of two parts: The in-coming breath. And the out-going breath. It goes on continuously every single moment of every single day. 

When a child is born the first thing is the in-coming breath. It signifies that Life has begun. And then consider the last thing that a dying person does... breathes out. It is the out-going breath. It signifies the end of Life. 

The in-coming breath is Life. And the out-going breath is Death. Death is a part of Life. They are not separate. 

When a breast-feeding infant moves into the stage of feeding oneself... One dies to infancy, and is born into childhood. When a child moves into puberty... One dies to their childhood, and is born into being a teenager. Then the teenager dies to his teens, and born into being a young adult. Dies to being a young adult, and born into being middle-aged. Dies to being middle-aged, and born into being old-aged.

Question 1

HOW CAN WE PREPARE OURSELVES FOR DEATH?
How to prepare yourself for death....

Start dying each moment to the past. Clean yourself of the past each moment. Die to the known so that you become available to the unknown.

With dying and being reborn each moment you will be able to live life and you will be able to live death also.

And that's what spirituality is really all about: to live death intensely, to live life intensely; to live both so passionately that nothing is left behind unlived, not even death.

If you live life and death totally, you transcend.

In that tremendous passion and intensity of life and death, you transcend duality, you transcend the dichotomy, you come to the One. That One is really the truth. You can call it God, you can call it life, you can call it truth, samadhi, ecstasy, or whatsoever you choose.

The Art of Dying, Chapter 2

And, the beat goes on.