after the tempest

I have been reflecting upon Master Sheng Yen's saying "To transcend the suffering of death, keep to the three principles: never seek death, never fear death, and never wait for death to come." I have wondered, is the Buddhist view of death only related to one's physical death, or is it referring to all forms of loss in general? The more I reflect on it, the more I feel that this principle of "never seeking, never fearing and never waiting" can apply to many things. They even seem to correspond with modes of being that look upon objects as separate things: to be desired, to be feared or simply to be waited for.
     I am particularly interested in the third part of Master Sheng Yen's statement, because it seems to be a balance for the other two. Whereas the first two parts of this adage seem to refer to seeking and avoiding, it's the third that is the most subtle form of attachment, in the sense that it relates to despair. Once I think that some big loss or death is on the horizon, I begin to lose hope for all other parts of the life around me. There is even a subtle aversion to all experience. I was reading a passage from Shakespeare's Othello where Othello reflects upon how the tempest he had just survived only accentuated the loving contentment he felt for his wife Desdemona. The idea is that he starts to fear the ensuing moments, hoping that death would come quickly over him...for fear that he could never again feel or even recreate that absolute contentment he felt toward Desdemona, in that special moment. The problem is that Othello takes that one moment of contentment and develops another desire of wanting it to last forever. Not only this, but he even develops a wish to die after suspecting that things will never be as happy as he was in that moment.
   Grim food for thought, but always intriguing.