Death Is A Friend

To talk about death is a taboo. Hardly, if ever, would you be able to get a spirited conversation going on the subject. Dying is one big fear that dogs us. Like most things that we fear, we vanish it out of our minds just to give us the quiet we seek no matter how flitting.

But dying should not be something we should be worried about. The controversial Budhist Guru, Sogyal Rinpoche, perhaps to put accross the silliness of fearing death, once remarked, "To die is extremely simple. You breathe out, and you don't breathe in."

Rinpoche believes that much of what is wrong in Western society arises from the denial of death. This denial of death, he claims, actually complicates problems that exist in Western society. This is why as he puts it, in Western society “there is no long-term vision, there is little thought devoted (italics supplied) to consequences of actions, and little or no compassion."

People see death as terrible, as tragic. Because they want to live, they see death as the enemy of life and therefore deny death, which then becomes even more fearful and monstrous.

Beneath this fear of death lies "the ultimate fear” as Repoche would call it. It is the fear of looking into ourselves. We would rather suspend ourselves in the state of not knowing rather than be confronted with the truth of who we are.

Death, in truth, could be a friend. "Death holds the key to the meaning of life," said Repoche. This is the reason the Trappist brothers regularly greet each other with the Latin phrase “Memento Mori” - remember you are dying, to remind themselves that now is the time to live. Life is simply too short to just exist.

Remembering brings our life into focus. We are only just pilgrims in this life. Sooner or later our voyage has to end. Remembering calls us to sort out our priorities so we would not waste our lives just wandering. It helps us take care of the most important things in life first. We won’t be passing this way again. It would be tragic if we exit life’s door knowing we left very important things undone only because we let the trivial dominate our lives and left the crucial untouched.

Memento Mori - To This Favour ( William Michael Harnett )

Memento Mori - To This Favour, one of the most famous William Michael Harnett paintings.

A memento mori painting or sculpture is one designed to remind the viewer of their mortality and of the brevity and fragility of human life in the face of God and nature. A basic memento mori painting would be a portrait with a skull but other symbols commonly found are hour glasses or clocks, extinguished or guttering candles, fruit, and flowers. Closely related to the memento mori picture is the vanitas still life. In addition to the symbols of mortality these may include other symbols such as musical instruments, wine and books to remind us explicitly of the vanity (in the sense of worthlessness) of worldly pleasures and goods. The term originally comes from the opening lines of the Book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible: 'Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities, all is vanity.' The vanitas and memento mori picture became popular in the seventeenth century, in a religious age when almost everyone believed that life on earth was merely a preparation for an afterlife. However, modern artists have continued to explore this genre.

Unto Dust

Michael Jackson, the guy who has enthralled us with his musical genius, is dead. We feel the loss and we mourn. But we are all headed on the same direction. We will all have our turn at our own time. A favorite poem of mine on the subject, "memento mori" ( A Latin phrase which means "You are dying") by Peter Oszmann speaks of that "inevitable" and how we should deal with it.