This is one of the most profound things I have ever read as regards deep contemplation on the human condition: “In an abstract way all people know, of course, that they are mortal, and that they can die at any moment. In ordinary life this knowledge tends to become diluted or diminished; most people suppress the awareness of their own possible death by keeping themselves occupied by all sorts of other things—comparatively trivial things for the most part. Only in exceptional circumstances will we realize the full reality of our inexorable demise—and the nothingness that threatens to engulf our personal being. Once this happens, however, once we become truly aware of the finality of our being in the way Ivan Ilych did in Tolstoy’s classical story, for example, we will relate to our lives in an entirely different way. The full awareness of my death brings my existence into a clear focus that is absent from the average sort of life that is frittered away on unimportant details and cluttered with superficial distractions. A conscious "being-toward-death" will encourage me to stop running with the herd, escape the anonymous dictates of what "one" is supposed to do, cease moving through life like a somnambulist—and actively take hold of my life with conscious resolve and deliberate determination. Facing my death in earnest provides me with the possibility to make my life truly my own, and thus authentic.” —Jorn K. Bramann, “Educating Rita and Other Philosophical Movies"
Posted on: Wed, 14 Aug 2013 18:23:35 +0000
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