Do Gen Z View Death Differently?

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The all-knowing Self was never born, nor will it die.

Beyond cause and effect, this Self is eternal and immutable. When the body dies, the Self does not die.

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Katha Upanishad

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Like a person doffs worn-out garments and dons new ones, the energy Self sheds its wasted body and takes on a new one.

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Gita 2.22

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Death is not to be feared by one who has lived wisely.

Buddha

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Dr Varun Soni, The Dean of Religious Life at USC, said to us in a Coacharya webinar that one of the major issues he deals with in the UCS student population is suicidal tendencies. I live in Bangalore and worked in Kota, both notorious for youth suicides in India.

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Are young people, Gen Z and Gen Alpha, not afraid of death? Or, are they more afraid of living? Is Loneliness the only issue? How can one be lonely in the midst of hundreds, if not thousands, of other people? Varun and I spoke of increasing loss of faith in all of us, especially the youth, a subject Dr Lisa Miller addresses so brilliantly and evocatively in her The Awakened Brain.

Simply put, does the current generation of young ones view life and death differently from the older ones? Please share your views.

Let’s look now at what ancient wisdom says about death.

Kenopanishad is a Vedic scripture addressing death. In this 5000-year-old spiritual treatise, Yama is the king and arbiter of death and justice. Nachiketa, a young lad whom his father offers to death, travels to Yama’s abode asking, ‘Does a person live after death, or not?’ Yama, instead of answering this question offers him wealth and power. Nachiketa does not relent. He asks, ‘Teach me the Truth beyond life and death, right and wrong, cause and effect.’

Yama answers, ‘You are the Self. Self was never born and does not die. Beyond cause and effect, right and wrong, it is eternal and does not perish when the body dies.’ Yama goes on to describe the Self and the pathway to its realisation.

The essence of Kathopanishad and all other Vedic scriptures is that we are eternal and immortal energy beings who go through the transition of mindbody states. There is no heaven or hell suspended in space. Heaven and hell are experiences when the mindbody reappears in a new framework, which Krishna says are new clothes the Self dons. We live these lives learning, experiencing sorrow and joy, success and failure. If we are spiritually intelligent, we seek a way out of the cycle of life and death by disengaging and letting go. Death then becomes our spiritual coach.

Multiple cultures and religions treat death differently. Some do not believe in a life after death but believe in a space elsewhere we enjoy and suffer. If we confess our sins to another, who is also a sinner, we may ascend to an illusory heaven in some religions. In some others, if we destroy others who do not believe in our faith, we ascend to a pleasure state with vestal virgins. In Tibetan Buddhism, we move through six spaces of learning for 49 days before rebirth. Many cultures celebrate death as a finality. Some celebrate it as a liberation.

?Why is death such a problem, something to be feared, mourned and to be avoided? The global healthcare business is in double-digit trillions and growing, spurred only by the fear of death and the desire to live. We speak of wellness as a problem only because its absence may lead to extinction.

We fear death as an unknown. No one has come back and told us to our satisfaction what happens when one dies. It’s the not knowing that bothers us. In life as well we would like to know what is likely to happen. Science used to tell us that cause and effect rule the universe. Not anymore. Quantum Science is about probability, not certainty. It’s about our energy nature, not perishable mindbody matter. This is what spiritual intelligence is about. In Katopanishad Yama says, ‘Meditate and realise the energy nature of your Self to be freed from the fear death.’ Yama is the spiritual coach we need to embrace.

An understanding of death defines our locus of control. We do not control even our next inhalation of breath. Yet, we like to believe that we control not only our fate but the fate of others. This ignorance and delusion lead to egoistic arrogance, greed, fear, anxiety and stress. The invisible stress leads to mental illness, manifesting in multiple forms of loneliness and depression, and eventually to a lack of physical wellness as well.

?How do we get out of this cycle of expectations, greed, unfulfillment, anxiety, discontent and depression, believing that the world is our oyster and in our control?

?We need spiritual understanding and spiritual coaching to realise that while we are energy beings with energy potential, everyone else too is. A win-lose game is dystopian. What we need is a systemic and spiritual approach to benefit ourselves and others collaboratively and co-creatively, not merely within closed tribes of one culture, religion or race, but across all creatures on this planet and in this universe.

?All organized institutions today religions, governments, corporations and societal structures work in opposition to collaboration, recognition of equality in diversity and respect. We, as Scharmer says, are in the absencing mode in mind, heart and will. Transforming to the presencing state requires collective leadership excellence that’s free from religious beliefs, patriotism, selfish profiteering and parochialism.

?If we all believe in winning and making others lose, there will be no one and nothing left standing alive. We will all be dead.

?Coming back to young ones, is their existential view different? if yes, why? Willing to embrace death is not a problem, but escaping life seeking death as a preferable option is. Death is a teacher, not an escape hatch.

Reflection

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·????? Let’s not worry about death. Let’s be joyful in living. How?

·????? Can we be joyful if others around us suffer?

·????? Can one tribe, religion, race and nation be joyful by making others suffer?

·????? For how long and what for?

Ram is a co-founder and mentor at Coacharya. Ram's focus is integrating Eastern wisdom with modern science, spiritually, systemically and sustainably. Visit Coacharya https://coacharya.com

A correction was made on February 20, 2024: An earlier version of this blog mischaracterized Dr Varun Soni as the Dean of Religion, UCLA. Dr?Soni serves as the Dean of Religious Life of USC.

When we learn of a mistake, we acknowledge it with a correction. If you spot an error, please let us know at?[email protected]

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