DEATH is a cessation from the impressions of
the senses, the tyranny of the passions, the
errors of the mind, and the servitude of the body.
MARCUS AURELIUS. MEDITATIONS. Book vi. 26
IS any man so foolish as to fear change, to which
all things that once were not owe their being?
And what is it, that is more pleasing and more
familiar to the nature of the Universe? How
couldst thou thyself use thy ordinary hot baths,
should not the wood that heateth them first be
changed? How couldst thou receive any nourishment
from those things that thou hast eaten, if
they should not be changed? Can anything else
almost (that is useful and profitable) be brought
to pass without change? How then dost not
thou perceive, that for thee also, by death, to
come to change, is a thing of the very same
nature, and as necessary for the nature of the
Universe?
MARCUS AURELIUS. MEDITATIONS. Book vii. 15
MARCUS AURELIUS. MEDITATIONS. Book vi. 26
MARCUS AURELIUS. MEDITATIONS. Book vii. 15
With this reading I am reminded of the analogy of a cocoon, somewhat awkward and unsightly, yet turning into a beautiful butterfly. Metamorphosis is a fact of the universe... would it not also make sense that we also experience this? Death is inevitable and yet is just a beginning of something else? I guess it is an endless question that no one is able to tell us the answer to... I have faith that there is more beyond but I am unsure as to what beyond consists of. I treasure each moment sure in the certainty that at any moment my existence could change through the metamorphosis of death and I will no longer live on this mortal plane but "elsewhere". I should seize every moment of love and relationship with those I can NOW, living without regret or sadness.
ReplyDeleteLet me live through this coming year with this goal in mind to savour my loved ones and treasure each moment.
That which sustains the state of the Cosmos is Phusis. Phusis is nature, it is growth and death, it is change. Phusis is life and the possibility of life, in what ever form it may come in. It is the support of natural cycles, processes and changes in the Cosmos that basically keep this delicate balance of Logos and Chaos going.
ReplyDeleteNice commentary from both of you. Thanks for sharing your clear thinking. Pamela's comment reminds me of one of the Stoics (I don't remember which one) who said that living properly in the present is like being immortal, and is all the life a person could want.
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