Relation Between “Death and Life”

Some basic questions related to this subject are: Is there any division between life and death? Why do we consider death to be different from life? Why are we afraid of death? Is this division real, or is it just an imagination of the mind?

When we talk of life, we mean a continuous process in which there is attachment. Me and my house, me and my wife, me and my bank account, me and my past experiences — this is what we mean by life. Living is a process of continuity, which takes place through memory; and the opposite of this is death, which is the end of this whole process. So by creating an opposite in the form of death and then being afraid of it, we search for a connection between life and death; if we can bridge the gap between the two by believing in some explanation, some transcendental continuity, then we are satisfied.

We start believing in reincarnation or some other form of continuity of thought and then try to build a bridge between the known and the unknown. Thus, we want to find a connection between the past and the future. This is our basic aspiration.

Can we know about death while we are alive? If we could know what death is while we are alive, then we would have no problem. But since we cannot experience the unknown while alive, we are afraid of it. Our struggle is between us, who are the result of the known, and the unknown, which we know as death.

It is said that if some connection is proved between the past and the present, can it have any connection with the past, which the mind cannot even imagine, which we call death? Why do we separate these two? Do we not do so because our mind can function only in the field of the known, only in the field of continuity? The meaning is that we can consider life, which includes death, as the source of our existence.

We do not want to know life, which includes death; we just want to know how to continue to exist in the world and how we never end. We don’t want to know who we are; we just want to know how we can continue to exist and how we can never end.

Remember, what continues is never renewed. So is it possible to die while living? It means to come to an end. Is it possible to end all memories? It means to die every day so that every day that follows is filled with new life. It is only possible to know death while living. In this dying, in this ending, in this ending of continuity, there is new life.