Death

End or Opportunity?

In the past six months, we have had a handful of our team members face the death of loved ones and of course during this pandemic, many have handled the same situation. It is in fact the one thing that we can all count on no matter what: we will all die some day. It may be today or it might be 60 years from now — but no one escapes the inevitability of death as a natural part of life. Despite its universality, it’s a heavily feared and avoided topic in the West, but it doesn’t need to be. Eastern cultures have long openly faced and even embraced the opportunities presented by death. I hope that we adopt this more open discussion of and acceptance of death in the West soon so that we can improve the way we approach death.

I recently read a book by Sadhguru, Death: An Inside Story — which is a detailed exposition about death, rebirth, how to prepare, how to help others with death, and ultimately the implications of death for life here and now. Without attempting to recount all of the details, which I highly recommend you read for yourself — I want to focus on my main takeaways in case they are helpful for you.

1. Death is inevitable and it makes no sense to fear the inevitable — that simply converts pain into suffering unnecessarily.
2. Death is an opportunity to evolve (just like a caterpillar becomes a butterfly, a human can become the divine or whatever language you prefer — and death is a moment at which that possibility is particularly strong).
3. Just like any other fact of life (weather, sickness, food, etc…), we would be better off openly discussing death as a culture and teaching children to prepare for not fear death.
4. The way people die in hospitals and after a long attempt to battle various diseases is suboptimal and leads to unnecessary suffering that could be avoided through the proper maintenance of body, mind and spirit throughout life and a culture that embraces death through ritual and meditation.
5. Meditation can emulate death as preparation and practice to die well and take advantage of the opportunities presented to evolve.

I recognize that these views may conflict with your pre-existing beliefs, and I’m not attempting to make anyone wrong, simply share an alternative perspective that may be useful. Consider how much of our lives are spent avoiding death in one form or another — and imagine if all that energy was redirected to living (and ultimately dying) well. What would you have done that fear has held you back from?

If you fully accepted the inevitability of death and that it might arrive in the next moment, how would you live differently? Who would you connect more deeply with? What would you give to the world?

Prime Movers Lab invests in breakthrough scientific startups founded by Prime Movers, the inventors who transform billions of lives. We invest in companies reinventing energy, transportation, infrastructure, manufacturing, human augmentation, and agriculture.

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