The Search For Enlightenment

The funeral of Margaret Hilda Thatcher was performed with dignity and a degree of humour, befitting such a huge political figure. I was pleased that, although there were occasional expressions of dissent from the crowds lining the funeral route, there was no apparent protest.

Whilst many people harbour angry memories of the policies of Mrs Thatcher during her time in government, I was privatised myself whilst working for British Telecom, her death is not, in my opinion, a fitting time to resurrect those feelings in any public fashion. Of all the aspects of life, death is the one and only event that comes to us all, whether we be rich or poor.

The Christian funeral service celebrates the passing of the soul from this world into the next, an ending of earthly things and a beginning of heavenly ones. In this respect, Christianity and Buddhism agree, death is not the end, merely another beginning.

Buddhism looks at death in a similar way to sleep, it is not the end of something, it is a period of rest before the beginning of something new. In the case of sleep, it is the beginning of a new day. Death, on the other hand, is the beginning of a whole new life.

So I do not fear death, though I do not wish to hasten its coming. I intend to make the most of each and every day, and when death does arrive, as it will, I will enjoy the rest before being reborn into a new and exciting experience.