(Credit: Prakash Mathema/AFP/Getty)
This is a wonderful article with, surprisingly, quite a bit of material to contemplate. Why are we so out of touch with death in the west? Well, for a start, because we don’t take a moment to ever even think about it. Death is sequestered in the west. And once it comes out into the open (as in Bhutan) it is healthier, there is less fear, more joy, and even more possibilities in “dealing” with loss and death:
“Ritual provides a container for grief, and in Bhutan that container is large and communal. After someone dies, there’s a 49-day mourning period that involves elaborate, carefully orchestrated rituals. “It is better than any antidepressant,” Tshewang Dendup, a Bhutanese actor, told me. The Bhutanese might appear detached during this time. They are not. They are grieving through ritual.”
This is the Buddhist 49 day reading cycle that we allude to (and follow) with our reading practice in the Labyrinth Readers Society. We also have a facebook forum so you can follow what we are doing on a daily basis.
