I have been a bit puzzled by some of the ‘stuff’ I have been reading about dying, death and grief lately. And I do understand the human tendency to make sense out of things that happen in order that we can navigate our way through life. However, I find it odd that folks are looking to define the purpose of death.
JJ Krishnamurti the well-known Indian philosopher responded to this question; “Why do you maintain that Life has no purpose?’
Krishnamurti responded; “Life by which I mean, that life which is truth, in which there is no division, in which all things consummate, on which all things depend, in which all things exist that life has no purpose, because it is. Individual existence has a purpose, but life has no purpose.”
For me I feel the same about death, it just is. I may assign it some meaning, I may give it a purpose that suits my world view or my perspective on life yet death itself is without any purpose. We often assign some sort of purpose to death in order to make the life that was lived more significant even though the life lived and their death are to very separate things.
For me death simply is.
What is important for me is what I choose to do with the death. Much like kitchen green waste. I can toss it into the garbage and it will go into a landfill and rot uselessly in a plastic garbage bag, being of no use to anybody – just dead unusable rot. I could make a different choice regarding my kitchen waste and place it in a composting system that will return to me useable garden compost that will enrich my garden soil and support the nutritional value of the crops I grow. My choice turned rot into compost!
I can do the same with death. I can choose to tie it up in a nice neat package and bury it where it will not serve anyone’s or my future growth. Or I can allow death to see the light of day turning it into a loving compost that will support the growth of my life in some previously unforeseen way.
Death just is. What we do with it and how we each assign a purpose to death is our own individual, personal, spiritual journey different and separate from anyone else’s.
Leave a Reply