What is death?
Though it is the only inevitable event in life, death is little discussed. It wasn’t always so. For most of human history our relationship with death was closer, partly because it had to be. Death was there, lurking around almost every corner, a constant shadow to life. Modern perspectives on death are more sanitised.
One reason for this is fear. Many fear death, fear the unknown, fear the uncertainty of what comes after life. So the topic is disinfected and hidden away, forgotten about until it becomes impossible to ignore. For most of us, life is about the living of it.
Yet life is also about dying, no matter how much we choose to ignore the other side of the equation.
It’s impossible to know what death is, to understand it. Is it a dead-end, or is it a pathway to somewhere else? Though some claim the answer, no explanation is certain.
Still, we know a lot about death, more than many think. We know a lot about what it is, and what it is not.
That’s what this book is about. It’s about death.
What is death? Let’s explore.
Many of those who live in Asia consider Western perspectives on death to be naive, childish even. Why do people in Europe and the US fight something so inevitable?, they ask. Why don’t they talk about death openly? Life and death are the same, they say, part of a cycle.
A few months ago, while looking through a trunk in my uncle’s attic, I came across some notes he wrote in 1998. The subject: Eastern perspectives on death. For people in the West, they offer a radically different perspective, one which is positive and challenging.
A scanned copy of his notes is available here.
My transcribed version can be found here.