Good stuff Freefall, Yes..I don't think world is too mysterious, it spreads alibi all over the place! We just need to be patience and observant to it. Can you imagine, EVERYDAY we experiencing conscious (awake) and unconscious (asleep) in non stop cycle! Does that don't mean anything to us? I don't know if my theory/believe is right but the more I surrender with my sleepiness, the more I surrender with death
Everything is illuminated and open. All you have to do is to open your heart and mind.
It's pretty much the same with death.
The phobia and concept of fear happens in two aspects: when you face something which possesses (or at least you think it is) danger in a lethal level to you, OR when you face something which is unknown or alien to you. Fear of death happens mostly because of the second one.
No one knows death. He is a mysterious being transcending throughout species, from living ones to non-living ones. He couldn't be experimented, he couldn't be questioned, he couldn't be recorded---because it's a totally different thing from the living. But it doesn't mean he couldn't be understood.
Death is the end phase of life. Everything in this world is not eternal and thus must come to the end. From the end, new things come and thus the cycle of life repeats itself. Thus, death, albeit being the end portal, is actually a starting portal. That is why the Tarot Card Death doesn't necessarily mean a bad thing; to be precise, it means "The End of A Phase and The Beginning of A Next Phase."
Death can be observed in many forms, not only in the form of cessation of life line. For example, things around us---rocks. wood, etc.---will one day be destroyed and decompose, only to have its elements form another form of substance. Another example: water 'kill' fire and also vice versa, resulting in steam. Most trees have their leaves dying in autumn and winter, which is important to trigger the growth of new buds and sprouts in the spring. And also, every day, the day kills the night and the sun rises, then in the evening the night kills the day and so the moon shines.
Another more humane aspects of death: when we graduated from high school to a higher educational level or simply plunge to the society, we 'kill' our previous level to shift to a new level. When a relationship comes to an end, we open ourselves to another new relationship. And when we experience things, we let some past die away partially (e.g. moving away, taking chances, moving on after a happening) to welcome new things and thus be renewed. And in a more complicated way, when we make decisions, we actually kill thousands of possibilities of our future which could happen if we make other choices and instead give birth to another thousands of new possibilities for us to again be killed and be reborn (remember Chrono Cross???).
Thus death is just a phase to pass. Life is a journey and death is the end of a journey, to start another new journey. Some people say sleeping is a prelude of death, a habitual practice to encounter death. We never know, but sleeping itself is a journey which happens in a microenvironment---inside our own realm of thoughts.
I made a note about death after my own experiences being almost dead three times in just a month. But it's in Indonesian...anyway, if you're interested
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=173752892028
