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TEACHINGS | EASTERN HORIZON 37

Death – Why we Fear it

and How to overcome it

By Venerable Geshe Dadul Namgyal

Geshe Dadul Namgyal Prof George Yancy

The following is an interview that appeared in The New its inalienable flip side. It’s not that we think death

York Times philosophy column, The Stone on February will not come someday, but that it will not happen
26, 2020. It was conducted by Dr George Yancy who is today, tomorrow, next month, next year, and so on.
the Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Philosophy at This biased, selective, and incomplete image of life
Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA. Prof Yancy is also gradually builds in us a strong wish, hope, or even belief
the author, editor, and coeditor of over 20 books. in a life with no death associated with it, at least in the
foreseeable future. However, reality speaks differently
Geshe Dadul Namgyal, our regular contributor to the and contradicts all these. Thus, it is but natural for us,
Forum series in Eastern Horizon is the Senior Resident as long as we succumb to those inner fragilities, to have
Teacher at Drepung Loseling Monastery Inc., Atlanta, this fear of death, in terms of not wanting to think of it
and Senior Translator/Interpreter, Emory-Tibet Science or seeing it as something determined to rip life apart.
Initiative, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA.
We fear death also because we are attached to our
Eastern Horizon thanks Geshe Dadul for permission to comforts of wealth, family, friends, power, and other
reprint this article in our magazine. worldly pleasures. We see death as something that
would separate us from the objects to which we cling.
George Yancy: Why do we fear death? In addition, we fear death because of our total ignorance
and uncertainty over what follows in its aftermath.
Dadul Namgyal: We fear death because we love life, A sense of being not in control, but at the mercy of
but a little too much, and often look at just the preferred circumstance, is responsible for the fear in us. It is
side of it. That is, we cling to a fantasized life, seeing it important to note that fear of death is not the same as
with colors brighter than it has. Particularly, we insist knowledge or awareness of death.
on seeing life in its incomplete form without death,