Common Perception of Death
The basic understanding as of now that we have of death is 'fear'. There is fear and greed but I will start from fear because we understand fear more clearly than greed; fear is a layer deeper than greed. We think that from greed fear appears. No! It is the other way around: from fear, greed appears.
'I' is the root of fear; 'mine' is the root of greed. 'I' is the ego: the being and the root of fear; 'mine' is the sense of possession. We say, 'this is mine, that is mine, this is my house, this is my car, this is my bungalow, these are my relations, these are my friends.' 'Mine' is the root of greed. 'I' is the root of fear. That is why the loss of the ego, the loss of 'I' seems so traumatic, so fearful.
So let me explain about death. The minute we hear the word death, what happens to us? The very word creates agony; the very word creates fear. The very word! Immediately we think: why should we talk about all this now? We will handle it when it arrives. Why should we think about this now? There is a deep fear in us where we think that just the very thinking will invite death to our homes!
In most cultures, death is not discussed openly. Youngsters are discouraged from talking about it. It is considered inauspicious. If there is any death in the family, the children are kept away. They are not allowed to be around for the funeral. I don't know whether it happens in this culture as well. Any kind of loss is pushed under a mental carpet! Something that is so natural, so normal in the larger cycle of life is turned into an abnormal, fearful thing.
Therefore from a very young age, we build an impression of death as a fearful enemy that must be kept at an arm's length. On the one hand, we long for happiness and freedom. On the other hand, we fear of letting go of all our alleged securities. This makes us build so many walls that we finally end up entombing ourselves.
If you are in a room and you know you have the keys to the room, you know that you are free to stay in the room as long as possible and leave it when you want to. However, if you do not know about the keys to the room, even when you are in the room willingly, you will always be afraid of being locked up with no means of going out. This is exactly what happens with us when we think that we need to escape from death, but do not know how to, and at the same time want to enjoy the freedom of life.
Please understand that unless we throw ourselves into the utter insecurity of Existence, we will never experience real freedom, real bliss.
As of now, our understanding about death is totally negative. Death is seen as an enemy. That is why, in all religions, in all cultures, death is painted as black. In Hinduism, Yama is black; in Christianity, Satan is black; in Buddhism, Mara is black. In all religions, death is painted in black. We paint death like a villain, never like a hero; death is always painted as a villain. The idea of death is always approached with negativity; we feel death takes away everything from us. Whatever we want, whatever we enjoy, whatever we have, is just snatched by force from us. We always want to escape death.