7. Our life is a pilgrimage toward death, the moment of truth, the moment of absolute knowledge.
While Taoists accept the notion that all things die, I certainly wouldn't define life as a march or a pilgrimage toward death. While some beings may indeed march, others dance, skip, run or walk on their hands. More importantly, death isn't a goal or an objective; it's merely the way our existence works. Everything once born, dies.
As stated in the previous post, this sort of methodology trivializes the lives we have in the here and now. It's as if life is foreplay and death is the climax! This kind of metaphor simply doesn't fit into the philosophical perspective of a circle.
This post is part of a "miniseries". For an introduction, go here.
As stated in the previous post, this sort of methodology trivializes the lives we have in the here and now. It's as if life is foreplay and death is the climax! This kind of metaphor simply doesn't fit into the philosophical perspective of a circle.
This post is part of a "miniseries". For an introduction, go here.
this is the one idea that sort of lingers in me from being raised in christianity- the fascination and absorption with death... despite myself, i end up thinking about death (my death and the death of my loved ones, animals, even strangers) quite often, and i'm not quite sure why. it's something i often dread and often look forward to. but then again, that could also be due to the fact that i've had extreme bouts of depression in the past so i have often wanted to end my life and thus have spent many, many hours contemplating what waits on the other side, what death is like, etc... so i end up swinging from desiring death during a depressive phase to recoiling from the thought during times in my life (like now) where i am very happy with my life.
ReplyDeleteI understand where you're coming from. That said, I don't think a person needs to seek death to contemplate it. Since it's something that awaits on the horizon for each of us and humans like to understand things, it's natural to wonder what it might entail.
ReplyDeleteyep i agree. i think my wish to seek death is more of a personal flaw, owing both to my inherent nature and upbringing. either way i can't completely shake the christian idea of death... or, i should say, i haven't been able to shake it yet. it's a work in progress.
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