in the light

In the light of impending death all things regain the glow we had forgotten about: the grass becomes greener, the unfulfilled dream becomes more painful (or forgotten), things lose their use value and regain their play value, the world is open, undefined and filled with possibility, a source of happiness - we live again. We see the cosmic importance of the particular yet at the same time to replaceability of it. The desire for the end was always the desire for a new beginning. The place which the "new" has in mental life, is filled with intoxication, hope and fear. It is not a void, it is the sum of possibilities.
In the light of impending death the distinction is clearly made between what had been important , and what had been a mere escape from boredom - like being proud of your etnicity or something...
Religion thinks it can dismiss the essence of life that appears in the light of an impending death as "vanity", precisely because religion is in the first place a denial of death.
Our life is determined by its finiteness, in time (death) and space (also death: one body making place for another). Without individual death there would be no individual. Because of death (viewed as the particular which makes place for the particular) we live.
All our thoughts are imbedded in a realising of impending death.
In the light of impending death, when death can not be denied as the end, symbols do not suffice anymore, such limitations do not exist anymore.

 

Great post! I especially like "Without individual death there would be no individual."
I try to remember that death can come at any time so that I might live my life to the fullest and live with as little attatchment to this world as possible.