[MD] an authentic teacher?

[Heather Perella]

     [SA previously]
> I find death to be very comforting and clear in its'
> direct experience of
> reality.  I really go through high moments of
> clarity during funerals and
> days after funerals.  Some deaths still are strong
> enough that even their
> memories stir a clarity of life
> like no other, one such is my father's. Still, I
> find the need to stay warm
> and cozy during these autumn nights and now that it
> is morning I'd say these
> mornings, too.

     [Joe]  
> ŒComforting¹ is not a word I associate with death!
> Louise¹s struggles to pay
> attention to nothing but her own emptiness were
> terrifying.  A friend¹s son
> met death in a motorcycle accident because his body
> was so broken he was
> unable to experience anything but emptiness. Such
> clarity is not comforting!

     Yes, I would agree with you that associating
emptiness and comforting would conclude non-comfort. 
Notice I didn't associate my experience of death with
emptiness.  To have a void such as emptiness involved
with death would be uncomfortable I would assume.  I
don't have this sense of emptiness at this moment for
those that have died in my life.  

    [Joe]
> IMO death can only happen to one who has been forced
> to stare at emptiness
> either by force or willingly.


    Death only happens by staring at emptiness? 
Please explain.  I don't understand.

    [Joe]
> For myself Œcomforting¹ is not a word I
> associate with emptiness.  Death is no teacher,
> Christ notwithstanding.

    Why do you associated death with emptiness?  This
is unique to me.  Please help me understand your
perspective.
     To me everything I experience is a teacher.  Even
suffering, pain, and Hiroshima have much to teach.  To
be a teacher, to me, is something that does not
necessarily have to make somebody happy and numb to
sadness.  A teacher may induce crying tears from time
to time.
    Also, what do you mean by "...Christ
notwithstanding."

thank you.

woods,
SA 

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