Death is an old friend, that many times we never speak to. It comes in its mystery but is always dependable in its actions. One of my favourite depictions of death and the dead is from Greek mythology when Hades, the god of the underworld, snatches Persephone away down, because that is the characteristic of the death and the underworld. His actions are driven by the domain he rules and the reactions from her mother is not so different from ours ,when death knocks at our door.
Philosophy on Death
Death has been an age old question and many philosophers have written extensively on the topic:
Socrates believed death would either lead to a dreamless sleep or a blank wall (nothingness), or a passage way to another life. But it would be pointless to be fearful, regardless of what death would greet us with.
The Vedas, views all beings as souls and spiritual in nature, after death a soul is reincarnate, taking birth in another form (Think of it like how hermit crabs find new shells when they outgrow their old ones).
Plato, believed death opened up the door to an ideal world and from the horses mouth: “I am afraid that other people do not realize that the one aim of those who practice philosophy in the proper manner is to practice for dying and death.” Freeing the idea of the body from the mind (sounds familiar?)
Epicurus ever the pragmatic, believed death was simply the cessation of sensation-not good or bad. Making it inconsequential to us. He asserted our fear of death was the one thing holding us back from living lives of tranquility and fulfillment.
The Stoic school of philosophy emerged in 3rd century Greece argued the time to perfect our virtues and live life to the fullest is today—by meditating on our mortality as a reminder that tomorrow might not arrive.
Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius said:
“Do not then consider life a thing of any value. For look to the immensity of time behind thee, and to the time which is before thee, another boundless space. In this infinity then what is the difference between him who lives three days and him who lives three generations?” [Meditations, 4.50]
Sixteenth century French philosopher Michel de Montaigne wrote extensively about being meditative on death, urging the plain and simple premeditation of death as a way to learn how to die: “To begin depriving death of its greatest advantage over us, let us deprive death of its strangeness, let us frequent it, let us get used to it; let us have nothing more often in mind than death.”
Twentieth century French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre saw death as a reflection of our meaningless existence. ”I think of death only with tranquility, as an end. I refuse to let death hamper life. Death must enter life only to define it.” Which at least opens up the conversation abit more.
Otto Rank, the first existential therapist, said it best: “some refuse the loan of life to avoid the debt of death.” His solution the idea on the ”courage to be” –developing the strength to love knowing loss, to create knowing destruction, to connect knowing separation.
Finally, 17th century Dutch philosopher Spinoza believed that when you’re dead, you’re dead … and preferred to focus on the joys of living rather than meditating on The End. Spinoza bought into Socrates’s notion that the unexamined life wasn’t worth living
Death: Friend or Foe?
If you are wondering what the answer is (Tough luck I’m clueless too). But I believe the answer may lie in between the ideas of meditating on death and thinking nothing of it.
Personally, the concept of death was introduced to me early on through my religion. Like others I find comfort in discussing death and having layers to it with the variations of the afterlife.
As a Christian, a verse I find that treads the ground of both meditating and thinking nothing of death is :
‘For me, to live is Christ, to die is gain’ – Philippians 1:21.
The verse looks at death as a combination of what we read earlier from philosophers. It does not diminish the fact that death will come but it is knowing that you should live for something greater than yourself . The writer, Paul was a man that constantly faced death in his journey. When he wrote this, it was clear his current actions and its purpose, mattered despite staring death in the face. His philosophy of seeing it head on but knowing there is so much more was one of the things that fueled his life ambition.
I don’t have the answers to death but I do want to leave you with the understanding that maybe there is something in your life be it religion, family, peers or your passion that can help you navigate and converse with your age old friend death.
ArrowsInk 
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