What is the Significance of Death?

For some, the cessation of life is a bad thing.  It means no more energy, no more activity, no more pursuing, no more forcing of one's will, no more hoping, no more joy.  For others, death is a positive thing.  It means rest, it means peace, it is the end of oppression, then end of suffering.  Death might look horrible on the surface, but that is our experience of deaths of those whom we love.

Every person is connected to another, and each person we know makes up part of who we are (through mirror neurons).  So when we experience their death, we experience a loss of a part ourselves.  Does this mean that our experience of death must also be dreadful?  Might the different perspective equate a different experience? Might death be positive.

Is it possible that the cessation of our life could be positive?  After all, the end of our existence means the end of our universe.  We have only one perspective to understand the world from, and our whole universe takes place in our brains.  Without our brains, all of reality, all of the universe ceases to exist from our perspective.  How can this be good?  All that we have done fades and all that we have accomplished is for naught.

On the other hand, from our perspective, all of our striving and trials and difficulties are faded as well.  There is no longer any evil.  And since our brain is no longer functioning, we cannot experience any angst about our cessation.  Non-existence means no emotional insecurities.

But does death automatically mean the end of our existence?  Plato held that our bodies, including our brains, are just holding us back from true freedom.  Since we have lived, can we cease from living?  Is there not some way in which existence might always be, but without the constraints and shackles of the body?

And even if our life and existence is trapped to the body, is it not possible that a future entity, a future humanity, might take our DNA and re-create us, giving us a new chance at life?  Is our life really over?  Can it ever really be over?

What Is Death?

Some have claimed that death enhances the meaning of life.  However, if humans are simply animals, then why should our deaths have any greater meaning than other animals?  Does the certainty of death encourage us to live better or to simply frighten us, causing us to desperately cling to life?

Is death an unassailable mystery, or is there some way to break through the barrier, to catch glimpses of death? Is death simply cessation of being, or is there a part of us that never dies?  What would be the nature of that aspect? Is it simply other people's memories, whatever physical presence we have left?  Or is there a non-corporeal essence that will exist after our bodies cease functioning?

Is there any possibility to reverse death, to have a second chance at life?  And if there is, and we are convinced at another life, do we live differently than those who believe that our complete existence ends at death?