Informal definition for death and mindfulness.

This article discuss philosophy of death, from a point of view of mindfulness.

I was at a funeral. While formal grieving process was going on, with adults, kids were at play. I could not help notice of them, running around in joy. I am sure while the older kids, were aware of the grieving process of death, younger ones and toddlers, did not know that at all. Death is not a concept on their minds. And I am sure if you keep a todder under his mothers dead body, would still smile and play, but a teenager who has lost their mother would be devastated. And it made me wondering what death really is? Previously I have written about death, in philosophical point of view and a poetic manner. However here I would take a mindful apporach, for that matter to give you a new perspective to look at death like a kid!

Funeral: https://unsplash.com/@m4yron

Formal Definition of death.

"a permanent cessation of all vital functions : the end of life"

"the action or fact of dying or being killed; the end of the life of a person or organism"

Above are the two formal definitions of death given in Merrium Webster and Oxford dictionaries respectively. And it made me think, death is not only affecting us, humans. But all the living organisms, for microbes trees animals viruses etc. Even a cell without any sign of a consciousness would live and die in a petri dish. Hence "Death" goes beyond just funerals. We know this, yet do we even think about it while at a funeral? Or we just cry?

But the purpose of this article is to look at death from mindfulness eye. And get that wisdom into our practice so we can be better at understanding nature. Well, that is good enough a purpose. And for the first time I feel like I am going to talk about something to improve value rarther than reducing it.

Practical on death.

Let's do a practical example. Imagine someone who knows and is dead. I am sure this person, when was living, you would go and meet them even daily, if they were dearest to you. And you are afraid to meet them today, as this just means that they are a ghost, not the person you did know. However, fundamentally what has changed, is that the collection of atoms, and the "Soul" is no longer there in the human form that you knew. As it has changed markedly, and returned to the nature, nolonger your eyes can make pictures of the same person. No longer your ears can identify their voice, from thousands of sounds in the nature. And you loved this picture, and the sound. Yet you cannot recreate it now. And that is one of the mindfulness ways of looking at death.

"Death is a change, which makes the pictures of someone, and the voice of someone nolonger appears "live" in our minds.

Now, this is a simple fact. It is not a new wisdom. We kind of already know this. Yet, this fact hides some truths about death. Now, imagine someone who is not here with you. I am sure you are reading this in a corner in your room. In a train, or in a bus. Or in your office, and very rarely even when you are in a boat. Imagine someone you know, and no longer there and is assumed still living. And put your newly formed wisdom on death to this scenario. Are they dead?

I am sure you will blame me at this point. And might even call me stupid. If 100 started reading this post, I am sure 90% of the audiance is lost at this time, as we are moving into some bizzare phenomena happening in our minds. And it is not occationally. It happens daily and it happens now. So if you are in that 10% who is not afraid you can read next para.

What is living? : https://unsplash.com/@rivercat

Its just physics.

The person who are not with you, or not in front of your consciousness is living and non living. It is not me who is saying this. It is quantum physics, applied with mindfulness. They are living because you do not know they are dead. Life is so fragile that nobody can predict when it happens as there are so many dumb ways to die. They are not living as you do not know they are living, unless they are in front of you. We have no way of proving that anyone is living unless they are infront of us. For that matter, anything. What exist in your relative world in this moment is what is there in your consciousness. It is just this scentence in this article not the previous one you've just read. Not even your feet! exist until I mention it. Not even your cloths exist Until I talk about it. Similarly Death exists only for the living consciousness. So, mindfulness is so simple. You just watch what comes to your turing machine which is called consciousness and more importantly understand what is not there as well, and know that simple fact.

So, you may ask, what is the ultimate trick for this kind of practice. What is the gain? And I can say we are not aiming for anything. It is just a investigation of self. To understand a continous process called life. And identify the key, actor which is called self. To identify its building blocks. To improve the wisdom, until it identify itself. Surely it doesn't end up in a heap of dollars for that matter. It is just to identify how A dollar would create happiness in the self, in the first place. Don't you want to know that? Don't you want to know who you are? Isn't it worth more than a heated compacted glistening carbon atoms mined from the core of the earth?

And I think it should be the aim of all the 8 billion intelligent consciousness, not only creating new gadgets or neuclear wepons to expand imaginary boundries. What do you think?