Death Connects Us To Life

 In response to the last "seed question" given:  What helps me not to be wrecked by grief stems from God  ... As in scripture.

Responsorial Psalm Ps 68:10-11, 20-21

Thank you Somik for writing and sharing your feelings.

For a very long time, I couldn't think of my Grandma without crying and immense regret.

 Dear Somik, Beautiful reflections. We have held this question several times in the last couple years. What really is death? My search eased a bit when 'Katho-Upanis, had' shed some light. In this very poetic exchange between Nachiket a young boy and 'Yama' the lord of death, Yama asks some very crucial questions? When you see a seed and plant it in a ground, the seed grows into a small plant. What then happens to the seed? Similarly, when the small plant grows into a huge tree, what happens to that plant? When the plant starts having Flowers, where does that come from? When flowers give way to a fruit, what happens to that flower? Do they all die to something or is it transmutation of energy from one form to another? With that Yama leaves Nachiket holding that question for a deeper inquiry. 

As you rightly said in the last para, What are we absorbing that frees us from all that feeling and roots us in Truth, resulting in Joy and Gratitude for our existence? Thank you.

How to live life fully is a challenge for all of us. How to  accept  fully and trully the departure of someone we love is also a challenge for us. When a child is born, we celebrate the arrival of the child and celelbrate her birthday. And when that child passes away we feel sadness and grief in our heart. We need to give space in our heart to truly and fully accept our sadness and grieving. It takes time  and support of our loved ones to go through grieving. This process allows us to get the true acceptance for the transistion of our loved ones.

I have gone this process several times when all the mebers of my family and my dear good old friends passed away. Knowing intellectually the impermanace of  life was not enough for me. I needed to go through the process of fully grieving, putting my head on the shoulders of my family members and friends and letting my self cry heped me to truly accept their passing away. I needed that space within me to expereince my sadness fully and feel lheir love and blessings and my love and gratitude for them. The last loss in my life, the passing away of my wife, was a very difficult expeirence for me to go through grieving. Fully and truly accepting my sadness has helped me to live my life fully. 

Life is a gift and death is a gift. Light is a gift and darkness is a gift. To see the light fully I need to see the darkness fully.

Namaste!
Jagdish P Dave

 Yes, the soul is eternal and continues to be present, and death of the body and loss of the physical presence is still a significant death and loss.  It is my experience that grieving creates a space for safely connecting to one's feelings.  When my father died, I sobbed like I hadn't sobbed since I was a child or maybe ever.  I was aware as I was sobbing that I was sobbing, that I was letting myself sob, that it was coming from a deep place within me, that it felt good, and that I was sobbing not ony about my father's death but also about a lot of things for which I had never let my self sob.  My sobbing was emptying and cleansing.  It was an expression of my grieving fully and authentically, and in it I did find wholeness and joy.  I didn't feel wrecked by my grief and sobbing but felt wide open and more together and whole as I was accepting and allowing and feeling my grief and sobbing.  My father died 23 years ago and the experience is still  clear and present in me.