Source: Intent.com - "Question: You say we are on a life/death continuum and that our death is simply the continuum of our life not the opposite of it. The opposite of Death is Birth........and death should not be feared. Why then does everyone try to stay alive? I would guess that we don't want to hurt the people who love us by leaving them but if death is just a continuation, then why do we try so hard to stay alive? Why do we spend countless amounts of money and train health professionals to prolong our worldly life?
Answer: Not wanting to hurt those we would be leaving behind with our death is certainly one reason we want to stay alive, but beyond that every biological organism has a basic instinct to preserve itself. That drive to survive is a deep built-in program that every living being has.
But we are not solely defined by our biology, our real nature is the silent consciousness that remains the same through all the physical changes we go through from infancy to adolescence, to adulthood to old age. Our true essence continues in the interim between the death of one body and the birth of the next. When we know ourselves to be that pure consciousness and not the body, then we will not fear the aging of the body nor its death even though the body’s instinct for self-preservation will still be intact.
Love,
Deepak
For more information go to deepakchopra.com