A year back, lost my maternal uncle and on the new year day, lost my aunt (mom's sister). Both went through a very painful experience. Close friend of mine too lost his dad too through a similar experience.
Looking back, I have seen death close by. My views on death has improved through various experience.
Death is not a loss.
Death is not an end.
Death is not something.
Death is the next stage. It's also a living in a different world. I dont believe in heaven and hell. But I am not sure where exactly someone will live after they leave. Reincarnations, near to death experience, karma....all can get complicated for understanding in depth.
But I dont have fear of death. When we grow, every stage is a death. We moved past and entered a new age. This is not just philosophical understanding, but also biological. Our cells die and are newly born every second, and we are told we are a bundle of cells.
Very strange I picked a book on death in 2011 "
The Tibetan Book of Living & Dying" by Sogyal Rinpoche. Probably, its a Tibetan treatment or possibly it was a spiritual book. I would have read it atleast two or three times.
My views on death were shaped by this single book. I am yet to comprehend the whole of treatment. I will pick it again soon.
Every day someone keeps dying - known and unknown. If I think about what will happen to their family, its empathy and compassion; but if think about what will happen to the person who died, that is spirituality.
We possibly pain ourselves with the the memory of the deceased.