Death’s Dilemma

ALTHOUGH WE WANT TO CONTINUE living just as we are, there is no greater topic to grab our undivided attention and fuel gossip mongers tongues the world over than the news of a human death.

The media, our friends, family, people in the street… ourselves included, can’t wait to discuss death. We are constantly bombarded by news about death due to war, violence, murder, accidents, disease, sickness, old age etc… And the more macabre or unusual it is, the more it attracts our attention.

Statements such as, “Did you hear that so and so died last night?” or the even more dramatic, “Ooh! Did you hear about that terrible disaster that killed all those people?” We all like to be the first to spread such juicy titbits of information about the death of someone.

The thought of death is always lurking somewhere in our subconscious – the impending death of ourselves especially, but also of others dear to us. For most of us it’s cause for fear – fear of the unknown. A fear we can manage as long as it is someone else who is doing the dying.

But what exactly is death? What happens to us when we die? Where do we go?  Most importantly, do we remain conscious of the ‘self’ we are accustomed to after our earthly demise… or do we simply cease to be? Is oblivion our lot after this short lifetime on Earth?

Those questions have not and cannot be answered with any surety by anyone still alive… and no one as yet has ever come back from the other side to tell us what happens. So do we continue to exist after death?

Death is inevitable for us all of course, but is it really to be feared or is it the stuff of legend. Could it be that death is in reality a release, a freedom of self, loosened from the mortal cocoon we call our body and the associated constraints of physical life?

Could it be that only our physical body and habitual mind (our ego) dies. Our familiar identity, the person we think we are? Is it only our ego that’s so concerned about stayin’ alive?…

Dan's Quote: "Without the physical, where do you think you would be? 
____________Exactly where you are right now!"

Header picture: ‘Cradle Mountain’ Tasmania, Australia