Nothing Lasts Forever - Part 2

Continued from Part 1

A fundamental question to ask before understanding our fear and avoidance of the subject of death is one concerned with what acknowledging our own end would imply for us. Simply put:

What does death mean for us?


Our fear of death stems from many sources. In my experience, my own fear of death is in the realisation that I will lose who I am - that I become something unknown. That I become nothing! There is a fear that I will lose control over who I am. The impermanence of death forces me to consider that, at one point in my life, I will have to give up everything I know in my life without having any say in it. But, then, as I thought about these fears, I realise that even now I am not in control of my life. My unique experience of life is dependent on my body, the food I ate, the friends, relatives and people I met in the past, the air that I breathe, and so on and so forth.

In other words, what I manifest as a human being is an existence that arises out of so many factors. The miracle of life is not that we exist but that we exist at all. The factors that are required for us to be here need to be in place for us to speak of ourselves. In turn, these factors that give rise to our being are dependent on many other factors for them to exist. This state of impermanence is a natural and essential part of the cycle of life. And, we no reflect on two reAalisations that we may extract from this meditation on the nature of impermanence and dependent arising:

• Connectedness: Life as a web where everyone is interdependent and inter-connected because, we need each other and affected by other beings and things in how we perceive reality and who we are. Our fear of losing our identity at the point of death is a natural response but can we exist independently of life? 
• Commonality: The appreciation that we share in the experience of impermanence and death. That whatever we own, whatever status we hhave, etc, we must one day leave this world. However, the awareness of a common death should make us appreciate the uniqueness and preciousness of the life we have. After all, even if we come from different realities, everyone must come to terms with their own finality.

And yes, even this post has to end here. What started off as a reflection on feelings of emptiness following a stressful week has given rise to a reflection on the nature of impermanence. I started by commenting on the phrase “nothing lasts forever” and now I find a depth to an seemingly simple phrase that I hadn’t expected. And, to end this post, I must tell you that not even diamonds last forever - they are also subject to the processes of impermanence and dissolution.