Reflecting on Death

Death is the only thing that is certain. I've been made even more aware of this fact on my current one-week clinical attachment on palliative care. This is a branch of medicine that specializes in helping people with incurable diseases to deal with their symptoms, especially pain. Palliative care doctors also looks after those who are approaching the terminal stages of their illness.

When should one start reflecting on death - on attending a funeral? with the loss of a loved one? on being diagnosed with cancer? 

This ability to anticipate death is what distinguishes humans from other animals. The fear of our mortality is not about being afraid of the afterlife. Rather, it is all about the fear of losing out from this earthly life. So long as we aspire to achieve something in our waking life, we will be afraid to die. 

But what about daredevils and stuntmen? I think these are the few who can suppress the fear of death by psychologically trying to minimize the potential that their risky activity might kill them. We must only ask among those that have barely escaped a fatal accident during a dangerous stunt, if the the fear of death was not resuscitated with that experience. 

On the other hand, when one exaggerates the potential that certain things like insects or flying on a plane can kill him, then one gets a phobia of those things. 

It's all too human to be afraid of death, but I think there's a way to transcend this fear. Our  worldly desires must be why we want to live longer - so that we we have more time to achieve them - and they are the cause of our fear of death. If we can constantly be mindful of our fulfilled ambitions - and contemplate on our achievements - desire for greater things can be compensated or better, extinguished.

"The aim of those who practice philosophy in the proper manner is to practice for dying and death"

Socrates