Death is normal and inevitable at the end of a life, of this we are certain. However, with more interventions increasingly available for medical professionals to sustain life and the medicalisation of care, society’s perception has shifted from dying at home to accepting dying in nursing homes and hospitals where medical support and treatment is closely managed under the Hippocratic oath to preserve and save life. |
This positions death as a failure and an outcome to be avoided.
Prior to twentieth century medical advances, death was a close companion to us all. People died from illness, disease, war, complications in childbirth and accidents because neither medicine nor we could ‘save’ them.
Could a consequence of this belief that death is a failure, be that many people have their life prolonged by medication and artificial means? Medical advances have given us the ability to preserve the physical body but intervention does not always improve quality of life. Instead of prolonging life what can actually be occurring is that the dying process is prolonged!
There is a lack of acceptance that death is a natural part of life and not something that necessarily needs to be ‘cured’.
Some know their time to leave has come and surrender to, or even welcome the dying process, whilst others fight or hang on for ‘grim death’ to the very last moment. Some, in their current diseased or troubled physical body or mind, opt to commit suicide in the belief that this will end their suffering.
Society’s continued abhorrence and fear of death feeds the demand and pressure for medicine and pharmaceuticals to supply treatments that hold death at bay for as long as possible. If we regard death as a failure, we will seek to constantly attempt to avoid and deny it in our desire to cling on to life. Our understanding and acceptance of death is limited by our view of life being about this ‘single’ life, but in-truth, there have been many teachers throughout the ages who have reminded us that this life is but one of many, like a cloak we wear for a time and then discard as we move onto the next life in our return back to Soul.
Each life offers an opportunity to understand the purpose of life and learning to surrender to the process of death is an integral part of any life.
We are part of something grand and forever expanding, therefore death connects, not severs us to the essence of every physical incarnation. When we see death as a failure, we do not appreciate and value its purpose in the cycle of life on our return to reclaim our natural magnificence.
When we understand that the purpose of life isn’t its length or our achievements, we learn it is about the quality we bring to it every day and this offers a very different perspective to what we regard as a ‘full life’. A full life, or a true life, is where, without perfection, we live every day and every moment with integrity and purpose to inspire ourselves and each other, to choose a way of living that brings the quality of divine connection. Therefore, it is the quality of our every movement and expression that offers us the way to evolve back to our divine origins.
We are not originally from this world and the sense that ‘home’ is somewhere else becomes heightened as we approach death. This teaches us that evolution, via the cycle of birth and death, is our sole purpose, our Soul’s purpose, for being human.
D&D Writing Team, Australia & UK
If you enjoyed this article you may also like to read:
Life as a Cycle
Prior to twentieth century medical advances, death was a close companion to us all. People died from illness, disease, war, complications in childbirth and accidents because neither medicine nor we could ‘save’ them.
Could a consequence of this belief that death is a failure, be that many people have their life prolonged by medication and artificial means? Medical advances have given us the ability to preserve the physical body but intervention does not always improve quality of life. Instead of prolonging life what can actually be occurring is that the dying process is prolonged!
There is a lack of acceptance that death is a natural part of life and not something that necessarily needs to be ‘cured’.
Some know their time to leave has come and surrender to, or even welcome the dying process, whilst others fight or hang on for ‘grim death’ to the very last moment. Some, in their current diseased or troubled physical body or mind, opt to commit suicide in the belief that this will end their suffering.
Society’s continued abhorrence and fear of death feeds the demand and pressure for medicine and pharmaceuticals to supply treatments that hold death at bay for as long as possible. If we regard death as a failure, we will seek to constantly attempt to avoid and deny it in our desire to cling on to life. Our understanding and acceptance of death is limited by our view of life being about this ‘single’ life, but in-truth, there have been many teachers throughout the ages who have reminded us that this life is but one of many, like a cloak we wear for a time and then discard as we move onto the next life in our return back to Soul.
Each life offers an opportunity to understand the purpose of life and learning to surrender to the process of death is an integral part of any life.
We are part of something grand and forever expanding, therefore death connects, not severs us to the essence of every physical incarnation. When we see death as a failure, we do not appreciate and value its purpose in the cycle of life on our return to reclaim our natural magnificence.
When we understand that the purpose of life isn’t its length or our achievements, we learn it is about the quality we bring to it every day and this offers a very different perspective to what we regard as a ‘full life’. A full life, or a true life, is where, without perfection, we live every day and every moment with integrity and purpose to inspire ourselves and each other, to choose a way of living that brings the quality of divine connection. Therefore, it is the quality of our every movement and expression that offers us the way to evolve back to our divine origins.
We are not originally from this world and the sense that ‘home’ is somewhere else becomes heightened as we approach death. This teaches us that evolution, via the cycle of birth and death, is our sole purpose, our Soul’s purpose, for being human.
D&D Writing Team, Australia & UK
If you enjoyed this article you may also like to read:
Life as a Cycle