What does it mean when the text says death is a "state of happiness for the body"? This seems counterintuitive.

This statement from Chapter 43 should be understood within its specific spiritual context. The text posits that life is a "modification of the body," while death is its natural state or "nature." From this perspective, the end of the body, its cessation, is a return to its natural condition, which is described as a "state of happiness." Chapter 43 encourages the wise to consider this viewpoint. For a saint who is a "mass of bliss" and devoid of bodily impulses, the body's end holds no sorrow. This re-frames death from a tragic event into the body's natural and peaceful conclusion, separating it from the eternal nature of the soul or the realized being.