Sunday, 28 July 20245M Hazel Poon
On 3rd August 2022, I joined the activity「吾生･悟死」. Through this activity, we explored the meaning of life and death in Catholicism.
The activity was separated into two parts. In the first part, we visited a cemetery and casket factory. Learning about the preparation process for death corrected my misconceptions about how we should make arrangements for our passing. At first, I thought buying a shroud and coffin should be done by the priest after we die but actually we can choose to buy them when we are still alive. Contrary to popular belief, arranging what we need before our death is not a taboo. We can choose the way we like so that our life can end comfortably.
In the second part, we had an experiential activity as we experienced parting. In this session, we need to leave our group in silence and lay in a replicate coffin. The purpose of the activity is to stimulate the sudden feeling of being alone and in the darkness, which would be a reasonable situation that I could imagine if a person is leaving this world. After this event, I realised that we often ignore what we have now and we only know to cherish what is ours when we lose it.
After the activity, I could feel the joy of life. Everything around me is so precious and I am grateful for everything I have.