death and moping

In The Dhammapada, a collection of sayings, Gautama the Buddha is alleged to have observed:

All fear dying.
All fear death.

But what is it that makes death such a mopey business?

In death, from the imaginative perspective of the living, everything is lost, everything is surrendered. And if everything is lost, what could possibly be left? It's pretty disheartening because no amount of imagination can answer that question ... though it's not for a lack of trying.

Heavenly hosts, fiery furnaces, girls with grapes, breathless peace ... imagine, imagine, imagine ... mope, mope, mope.

But if everything is lost and everything is surrendered, what is it, precisely, that constitutes this "everything." What is it that is so disheartening?

My suspicion this morning is the "everything" that is lost is pretty simple.

What is lost is simply the willingness to complain.

That'd be enough to scare the pee down the pope's leg.

Let us now bow our heads in silence ... and mope.