Understand Death

“It’s not who you think you are that holds you back; it’s who you think you’re not.” ~Unknown

Death in our civilization is seen as entirely negative, as if it shouldn’t be happening. Because it’s denied, people are so shocked when somebody dies – as if it’s not possible. We don’t live with the familiarity of death, as some more ancient cultures still do. The familiarity of death isn’t there.

In other cultures who understand death more deeply such as India, you can see the dead bodies being carried through the streets, and being burned in public. To the Westerners, it’s shocking and shouldn’t be seen, but who is right?

Approaching death and death itself, the dissolving of the physical form, is always a great opportunity for spiritual realisation. This opportunity is tragically missed most
of the time, since we live in a culture that is almost totally ignorant of death.

Not long after our son died, I was putting my six-year-old daughter to bed and started to cry and said “I wish Natty would come home to us.”  Looking perplexed, my daughter confidently said “But Mummy, he is home.”

“The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.” – Mark Twain

When we understand death is a natural passing into another dimension, no matter what age and that when we let go of the illusion that it could never happen to us or our family members, we can come to understand death rather than fear it.

It is painful only as long as you cling to illusion.

It doesn’t mean that the waves of sadness don’t come or the heartache they are no longer with us isn’t felt, but in between the waves of sadness, if you look at death more deeply, more spiritually, you will begin to feel a sense of peace within.  As you sense that peace, you sense a timeless essence and begin to know it is not the end for us or our loved ones.

We need to surrender to our conditioned understanding of death.  Learn from other cultures about death and  how they grieve openly and have a deeper knowledge of it.

Honour that sacred dimension and realise that what your mind is saying, that it isn’t right, is just a form of conditioning – it isn’t the truth.  Find the truth about death.  Face it, and know that the fear of it is more likely to destroy you than “living fully” in the knowledge that it can come at any hour.

“We all die.  The goal is not to live forever.  The goal is to create something that will.” – unknown