Death Meditation IV

Daily Meditation — 4/12/2022

As you know, we should be thinking of death often.

Society has placed a great curtain around us, shielding us from death and giving it a fraudulent aura of loathing, fear, and a misconception that death is evil.

Death shouldn’t be viewed as some terrible end or horror…

Death is the end of a good book. There may be some small, bittersweet feelings, but on the whole, we feel good about it. It was a beautiful story we were immersed in full of excitement and sprinklings of love, sorrow and all manner of Shakespearean drama.

When the book ends, we smile, gently close its cover with a caring caress, our minds full of fondness, and we place it back on the shelf.

The story ended precisely when it was supposed to.

This is death.

We no longer grow up on farms, slaughtering our own food and have become averse to the idea that all things go as part of the great cycle…
Including ourselves and our loved ones.

Since we aren’t exposed to it as much, we in modern society need to spend time meditating on death and ensuring we lead a life of gratitude.

Steel yourself — death is coming…
But it’s more like laying down after a hard day’s work than a bleak terror.

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These are distillations from my coming book “YouDaimonia: the Ancient Philosophy of Human Flourishing.”