What does it mean to be born? What does it mean to die?
It is impossible to verify whether you were something before you were thrown into the world (born) or you
will be something when you are
thrown out of the world (die). The world is the place where we know we exist
(we are something here and we are
aware of it) and this existence is filled with thought and sensation. Thought
has a limited structure (e.g. we are aware of thinking our own thoughts)
and is filled by sensations from our limited senses; our ability to think and sense
are both generated by the process of being born. The structure of thought and
the senses fall apart when you are thrown out of the world. Therefore, you were
nothing that could experience before being born, in life you experience and
then you become nothing again.
Why do we try to grasp nothingness? It is because of the value
of the something we have in life. Instead
of trying to understand the nothing and built comforting religions to cover up
the “horror” of not knowing, allow the hard edge of experience, beyond which
“no traveller returns”, to reflect back to this life and to the state in which you exist. As Heidegger says, thinking of our birth and death
brings us face to face with what we have gained in being born and what we will
lose in our death; in other words, it brings us back to ourselves as we exist
in this present moment. This means being aware of things like Parkinson’s but
also seeing this as only a part
of you.
“Our little life to rounded by a sleep” but what is
important is being awake when you live this life in this world.
No comments:
Post a Comment