Arun Sharma | Artist / Designer / Writer / Ceramics Teacher

What is Death?

Death is the end of a person’s life.

What happens when we die?

For the deceased person death is a finality after which there is no more (living). I wish/hope there is more but for the most part I imagine death to be the final lights out.

In some stories I write, I muse or imagine more after death. Maybe ones’ consciousness is in a simulation and we wake, only to discover we are in a marketing simulation (where we are asked questions like “do you prefer Coke or Pepsi”?).

Maybe this life on earth is a part of a trial, where we have to learn by experiencing life, and then we move on to the next place, to experience life in a different way.

I always liked the quote “we are not human beings having a spiritual experience, but spiritual beings having a human experience”. However, in all probability, we are really self aware material meat sacks, held down on the surface of a rock, hurdling through space. Death is a final, inescapable inevitability, over which we have little to no say.

All that being said, death is entirely something else for those of us who continue living. Witnessing death gives the rest of us a chance to not only ask what death is, but also what life is? After some of us die, the ones left behind not only get to miss and mourn them, but also get to reflect on the deceased’s life, and our own life.

Witnessing death gives a person a chance to ask what life has been for them so far, is this what they want life to (continue to) be?

If they want it to be different—then how do they want it to be different? Do they quietly, methodically improve small things, or do they completely upheave every aspect of life to see how things shake out? Do we cling to safety and security, or do we embrace the chaos in which we enter and exit?

Death shows us that life is a person’s [own] to live. In life, and even in death, we ultimately only have our singular point of view that informs our personal experience.

This self reflection, deriving from witnessing death, or even having a near death experience, also gives us a chance to ask: What is my life in relation to others? What experience do I have and/or want to have with my family, the one I was born into, and the one I started? What do friends mean, and what do enemies mean?

For me, having dealt with death of family and friends, my answer to knowing that my life will one day come to an end is taking care of my family, traveling as much as possible, living as an artist, teaching what I know to others. If I can (continue) to do these things well then it was a life worth living.

—Arun Sharma (2025)

Editor’s note: Arun Sharma was born in New York and has lived and worked in Canada, Japan, and the UK. His work has been exhibited widely, both nationally and internationally, and he is a former recipient of a US–UK Fulbright Award for research at the National Centre for Ceramic Studies, Cardiff Metropolitan University. Now based in Sydney, Arun teaches at his inner-west workshop, Kaolin Studios in Lewisham. He has recently begun creating bespoke ceramic urns and welcomes conversations with those wishing to design a unique vessel for their loved one. Contact: @arunsharmadesign.

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