Different cultures treat illness and death is different ways. On this solemn occasion of Sen Ted's

[burythehatchet]

illness. I simply offer a perspective as described in the Bhagavad Gita (Easwaran translation)

Sri Krishna:
...your sorrow has no cause. The wise grieve neither the living nor the dead. There has never been a time when you and I and the kings gathered here have not existed, nor will there be a time when we cease to exist. As the same person inhabits the body through childhood, youth and old age, so too at the time of death he attains another body. The wise are not deluded by these changes.

14

...

16

The imprmanent has no reality; reality lies in the eternal. Those who have seen the boundary between these two have attained the end of all knowledge. Realize that which pervades th universe and is indestructible; no power can affect this unchanging, imperishable reality. The body is mortal, but he who dwells in the body is immortal and immeasurable...


No offense to believers of other wisdom; just offering a perspective.

Warmest prayers of peace for Senator Kennedy.

[panader0]

1. Good.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

2. Same with Christians, no?

If your faith is strong, you're sure of a life after death, and, if your life has been correct (whatever that is), your soul will ascend to Heaven. So, the sadness should really be a celebration.

But, human fear and selfishness get in the way, and that's why people flip out.

[burythehatchet]

3. Yes. According to this book it is our attachment to the physical

that creates our delusions. This is covered later in the 2nd chapter of the Gita.

[enough]

4. Yes, I understand that perspective. Still, to see the deep human reality of love

in the face of death as witnessed by Senator Byrd today in the Senate was a moment of truth rarely seen in our public culture.

[Name removed]

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