Often the entity or person that is supposedly dead is also the one that you loved very much. For instance, and just for instance as an example, it could be one of your parents. Sorry for this rather stark analogy but it serves the purpose of Awakening you. You loved your mother a lot when she was alive. For all your life, you assumed your mother was the body that she represented. You saw that same body change continuously just like yours. The change could be called deterioration of the body. Perhaps, the change in the body was minimal and the so called 'death' came suddenly. In any case, the object of your love suddenly seemed to have vanished into thin air. Precisely, into thin air. For, if indeed she was the body, the body was still there after the so called 'death'. So, you may ask "where did my mother go?".
If you pause to think over this carefully, you may wonder who was it that was your mother? She certainly could not be the body for it is lying there in an inert condition and refusing to respond to any stimuli from the external world. Despite your crying for her, she refuses to respond. You are in dismay, for the object of your love, the body, is suddenly refusing to respond to your show of emotion and love. So, who is it that you loved if not the body? Who is it that you called "mom" and where is she now?
In some cultures and traditions, the dead body is cremated leaving behind the ashes. After all the body is merely a product of the five elements (earth, water, fire, air and space) and all that is left now is the ashes i.e carbon, which is a product of the earth. Is it possible that all along you were loving this carbon ash? Certainly not! Is it not the entity (or non-entity to be more precise) that animated your mother's body that you actually loved? THAT which is responsible for the animation of your "mother's body", would that not be the same for "your body"? THAT which gives rise to the sense "I am" to your mother, would that not be the same for "your body"? Now that your mother is "dead", she no longer has the Knowledge of Being i.e. she is no longer able to say "I am" or for that matter "I am not" either. So, all along what you thought you loved (as a personality i.e. your mother) was none other than that I AM(the Beingness), which is also WHO YOU ARE (I AM). So, in fact you were loving your own Self all along except that you viewed that body as someone else i.e. your mother. You had failed to see the substratum that animated the gross body. You had failed to see the Beingness- the same Beingness which animates "your body". Call IT by whatever name or label you want, but there should be no doubt that what you loved all along was none other than your own Self.
So, you can see that pondering over concepts like birth and death can open up avenues to know your True Nature. Now that you Know, keep meditating on that Beingness.
