In this episode of “5 Minutes,” Dr. Robert Svoboda explores attachment to the body, the fear of death, and the traditional understanding of why preparing for death is a natural part of life.

It is certainly a truism that every living being wants to stay alive. In the case of complex living beings like you and me, we are not only alive, but aware that we are alive, and aware that we are individuals. This awareness can move from simply wanting to remain alive into a fear of no longer being alive. That fear can then become anxiety about what might happen after death, or about what we might miss between the time we are born and the time we die.

Because we have moved into a space where so many people believe only in the mechanical and material aspects of existence, it is commonly believed that anything worth experiencing must be experienced during this lifetime, or there will never be another opportunity.

In many cultures, and particularly in the Indian tradition, life is understood as a period that punctuates experiences occurring beyond the physical body. There is disembodied existence, embodied existence, and then disembodied existence again. This is an ongoing process of educating the soul so that spiritual progress can be made.

To me, this makes a great deal of sense. To many people, it may sound like nonsense, but then they are left with the question of why existence exists at all and what there could be beyond material reality.

The more you are focused on your material body, the more desperate you are going to be to keep it intact, to become immortal, and to do whatever you can to make it last as long as possible, without really knowing what you intend to do during that extended lifetime.

It is very understandable that there will be an attachment to the body. It is important to remember, especially in the case of human beings, that we have many trillions of human cells, along with even more non-human cells and other organisms, including viruses. All of these are living as part of this organism that we call ourselves and naturally do not want that existence to end.

This is where the awareness of self that has been granted to us as human beings becomes important. We have to educate the organism to understand that while being alive is a valuable experience, it is also totally natural and inevitable that everyone who is born will eventually die.

So this is not only something that we have to educate our minds about. We also have to help the body become ready to relinquish its tenacious hold on life when the proper time comes.

Attachment to the body is natural to the organism, and it is also useful because without it we would not be able to remain alive. Something as simple as bacteria or a virus could overcome us, and we would quickly perish.

It is important to desire to stay alive. But it is equally important to remember that death is completely natural, and that we need to prepare ourselves for it.