By: Kassandra Dzikewicz
Death and dying can be a touchy subject, we don’t want to face the fact that we won’t live forever, that there will come a time where there is no tomorrow. Even though we all know the day will come, we try to ignore it. Maybe because we don’t know when our last day will be, maybe because we’re afraid of how it will end. But if anything those thoughts and worries should compel us to live our life fully each and every day, to cherish the time with our loved ones and embrace all opportunities and possibilities, to face our fears and to accept all that life has to offer.
Philosopher Alan Watts – a man who saw death as both an art and an adventure – analyzes our fear of death, and teaches us that it is okay to be afraid, and that death is a part of life that is crucial and unavoidable.
Watts explains how children allow for us to continue to live in a new way. Children see everything in a marvelous way, they are not focused on profit or success. Watts explains that once we start to lose our sense of wonder, and stop seeing the magic in things, and we are no longer fulfilling nature’s plan we die, and an entirely new view is born. There is no use in fearing the inevitable, we must realize that the cycle of life is a beautiful thing. Watts describes how dying can be seen as honorable, because each death makes room for a new life. Children allow for us to survive in a different sense; it is as if we are passing on a torch, and allowing the flame to provide light for a new life.
Watts explains that ignoring our fear of death will not make it disappear, “Suppressing the fear of death makes it all the stronger. The point is only to know, beyond any shadow of doubt, that “I” and all other “things” now present will vanish (…) If you are afraid of death, be afraid. The point is to get with it, to let it take over (…) And then comes the hitherto unbelievable surprise; you don’t die because you were never born. You had just forgotten who you are.”
Watch the following video to hear the teachings of Alan Watts, and overcome your fear of death:
Check out this Episode of Fully Exposed Podcast to learn more about life and death.
