Why do we die? Looks to me like an example of the saying "Everything changes". We begin with chemicals that include a design for building us from materials from Mommy's body. The plan is a pretty good one if we turn out to be a functioning human being: heart, brain, limbs, etc. The plan even includes ways for our various parts to refresh and rebuild themselves, at least to some extent. But predators, enemies, gravity or years of use halt or eventually wear out the basic components and we no longer sustain life within us.
Ram Dass, a former Harvard psych. professor, likens death to selling the Ford. We had one type of form and then we take on a different form. In the life form, we develop more thinking ability and eventually are able to see that we exist, somewhat separately from others, even those we love. We feel pleasures in that form and enjoy others. We couple a basic desire to live, shared with all living things, with a human and conscious desire to continue to experience pleasures and joys. We shrink from death.
The traditional sign of death is the lack of breathing and the lack of heart beat. Once dead, we, like fruit and other foods, are subject to the forces of decay that lead to dust or ashes. However, the dust and ashes can remain indefinitely, at least in human terms of time. Once you reach the age of 10 or 15, you can be confident that you are somewhere in the last 100 years of your life, although the French woman Jeanne Calment lived to be 122 years and some months beyond.
One of my friends has gotten great inspiration and insight from Ernest Becker's "Denial of Death", a book that explores fearing, denying or not recognizing the existence of death for each of us and all our loved ones and friends. Another friend gets depressed at mentions of death in this blog since they are a reminder that I might die and no longer be available to write and encourage. I recommend the practice mentioned by Jack Kornfield and Thich Nhat Hanh of thinking that one or one's love is already dead. The death will come soon enough and practicing a little thought of a death may both prepare you and increase your pleasure in the fact that there is still life. My favorite books on death (although I am not familiar with many) are "How We Die" by the professor of surgery Shewin Nuland and "The Book of Dead Philosophers" by Simon Critchley, a professor of philosophy. The former discusses the experience of dying from some of the main causes of death and the latter, the views of philosopher on the subject of death.
Nuland makes the point that death is the answer to new life, to the problem of getting out the old and depleted and making opportunities for the new and rigorous. Critchley notes that many philosophers from ancient times to modern felt that being comfortable with death is a major key to enjoying life while one still has it.
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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety
