Kobe Bryant: A Necessary Conversation About Death

The world has been stunned with the unfortunate helicopter accident that resulted in the deaths of the legendary basketball star Kobe Bryant, his 13 year old daughter Gianna and several others who were on board the flight in California earlier this week.

In this vlog post, in addition to offering condolences to all who are connected to they who passed away in this tragic accident, I share what I believe is a necessary though constantly avoided conversation on the subject of death.

In incessantly seeking to avoid awareness and acquiescence of our inescapable mortality, we are actually depriving ourselves of true value and the necessary balance to truly live.

Yet by remembering and accepting death as the noble path of passage each soul must experience, we liberate ourselves from both fear and from grief, and we learn to reclaim both purpose and perspective in our lives.

Kobe Bryant: A Necessary Conversation About Death

The most wise one from amongst you is he who most often remembers death, and the most prudent one from amongst you is he who is the most prepared for it.

— Prophet Muhammad ﷺ [Alam ad-Din]

Kobe Bryant’s recent and tragic death as a result of a helicopter accident has shocked many throughout the world. Perhaps what has been most troubling to many is that such unfortunate and unexpected events force us to face our own mortality and the reality that death may come to any of us at any time.

While this may create great anxiety and discomfort in many, it also provides a necessary doorway into a spiritual awakening in our lives that can ultimately lead us beyond fear and grief altogether.

Modern media and contemporary culture does its best to avoid the subject of our mortality and to persistently push away the topic of death so as to mire us in perpetual and pointless consumption, resulting in the bulk of the population living lives of unconsciousness and distraction.

Consequently, we are collectively imbalanced and lacking true and transcendent purpose, increasingly resulting in regret as we grow older and begin to realize that we spent most of our time and energy on things that do not ultimately matter.

To the contrary, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ advised his companions and the believers to remember death often, for in doing so our lives are seen in clear perspective and consequently lived in proper balance between focus on the pleasures and pursuits of this world, and that of divine purpose seeking to awaken the soul for its journey beyond and into eternity.

Additional topics discussed in this video include how the Buddha’s father sought to shield him from seeing death an old age so that he would not question the reality he was presented with in an attempt to prevent him from pursuing the spiritual path to truth and awakening, how the movie Logan’s Run shows that human beings become enslaved to consumption, indulgence and unconsciousness when the remembrance of death is absent, the lessons on death gleamed from Mitch Albom’s conversations with his dying professor, Dr. Morrie Schwartz, the importance of family relationships and the ties of kinship, and much more.

Go Warrior

Truly living requires facing both life and death with courage and with faith. In thus embracing what has been historically known as the way of the warrior, we awaken to our divine potential as human beings and honored servants and representatives of the Divine.