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Death : The Unknown Unknown
Death can be considered as a known, unknown. Although all humans know that they will die one day, but no one knows what happens after death as they cant experience it. Death can also be considered as an unknown, known as we may be completely wrong of whatever we think we know about death. Thus, in actual death is truly an unknown, unknown. Lets consider the below aspects of death:
- Mystery of death
- Concept of death in eastern culture
- Dying gracefully
- The way forward looking at death
To begin with, it is said, “Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live”
- Mystery of death
The most peculiar thing about human being is that although we know that people and beings are dying every day around us yet we think it won’t happen to us as we dream and think and work. If life gives us identity, death takes that away in a moment like a drop of water in a hot pan. After life is gone from the body every person is only called ‘the body’. No one knows from where existence came from and where it goes. In between, we have this interplay of experience between pain and pleasure. We put efforts to minimize pain and maximize pleasure and in the process create friends and enemies.
Humans condole and suffer the agony of death of their dear ones yet are unaffected by the everyday death of strangers and millions of beings around them. In fact it is the death of another being which makes us live. The same death makes us to react differently to different circumstances. How we react depends on what type of connection we have built in our brain of the person concerned. The sudden disruption of this connection due to physical loss of the person makes us to grieve and suffer as it cannot happen anymore. This explains why we are indifferent to the death of those not close with us.
In course of time even the agony of the death of the dear one fades away, for us to become normal in life, while regurgitating their memories once in a while. The person still lives in our minds albeit at a lesser role in affecting our everyday life. It is impossible to completely erase out memories once the neural connection has been established. No one knows why this happens and what purpose it full…