Chén Sifān with Atmos Megazine

What lies beyond the grave?

The rituals we create around death can help ground us in our impermanence and find rootedness in the now. @katrinaspade, founder of @recomposelife—a full-service funeral home dedicated to human composting—has seen this first hand. By ushering people’s loved ones back to the Earth in the form of compost, Spade reaffirms the cyclical nature of our being.

Composting can be as spiritual as it is material. According to Zen Buddhist scholar and practitioner Stephanie Kaza, every moment is an opportunity to embrace the cycle and our own impermanence; with every breath cycle, we arise and pass away. For Kaza, “that’s where the opportunities for spiritual liberation and enlightenment are.”

For Atmos Volume 10: Afterlife, Kaza and Spade sit down with Editor-in-Chief @willowonearth to discuss what afterlife means to them. Head to the link in our bio for the full conversation.

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