This (actually quite uplifting) video touches on the main issue Ive been thinking about for a few years now. So in my younger days, I nearly became a Taoist monk (funny story). Anyway, the one thing which I could never reconcile was death: that life on Earth is built to consume other life and then die anyway, that love and happiness are temporary, all that jazz. And I just couldnt gain detachment from it - in fact, I was offended at the idea that I SHOULD be detached about it. I understood that letting an unchanging fact of nature make me feel bad was futile, but my instinctive response was to fight it, to get angry! To do passionate, memorable, decadent things and live every day as though it is treasure being forcibly taken away from you, because it is. And I wrote half a book on the subject at one point, on how this is pretty much the only self-help guide you ever need, because we just dont acknowledge that Death could happen to us today or tomorrow, for stupid, unfair reasons. That planning for ten years time is ridiculous, because whether were still here then is *not up to us*. And being rightfully angry about that instead of thinking were owed those decades and so theyll probably happen. So yeah, its the very obvious existential problem of the human condition and is nothing new, except that truly facing the fact youre going to die - not accepting it, not being happy about it or at peace with it, but acknowledging the fragility and value of every day - is the single biggest way to make your life better immediately. The experience, the fearlessness of facing that injustice and insult that is the death of us and all things, and then working out how it changes your daily priorities, will in one step improve your life. This video captures the problem nicely, in an inspiring and happy way. I still havent figured out where I stand, other than thinking that depression and anger are simply logical responses by any thinking being, and resolving to make Death the enemy and spit in its face by having the best life while I can.
Posted on: Fri, 27 Jun 2014 09:06:33 +0000
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