Those who desire peace, tranquility, and a sense of well-being would benefit from contemplating death.
Have you ever considered what life would look like without death? What would your body be if cells never decayed or regenerated? What would plants be if they didn’t break down and compost? Life wouldn’t be life at all. It would be artificial; plastic.
Matter is never truly destroyed. It simply re-forms and changes purpose. Without death, there would be no sex, no birth, no growth. Death is required to create life. In fact, death is one of nature’s greatest creative forces.
People associate death with coldness, ambivalence, emptiness, or even evil. These descriptors could not be further from the truth and they contribute to an unnatural sense of horror around the topic of death. Negative connotations associated with death are rooted in fear of the unknown or the fear of pain / discomfort leading up to death, not in the actual death experience itself.
Many of those who’ve had a near death experience, or psychologically met their own death through a sacred plant medicine ceremony, would characterize the death encounter as tender, merciful, gentle, loving, compassionate, and kind. The angel of death knows each soul intimately. Understanding this, shamans and nature-based healers often look to death as a teacher and a guide.
Deep nature is a good place to explore cycles of life and death. In deep nature, you see the richness, the fertile soil, the earthy loam that death creates, as well as the life that emerges from it. Death cherishes life. Death promotes life. Death serves life.
The face of death is not one of decay. It is the rose in the instant it stops growing. Everything is either growing or dying. Surrendering to this core truth is part of the art of being present. A microcosm of this truth can be found in every cell. A macrocosm of this truth can be found in each galaxy. The fact that everything is either growing or dying pertains to societies as well as life forms. Contemplating death offers peace in the moment these truths are perceived.
