On Death: Why We Shouldn't Worry About It

On Death

Death is a subject that most people try to avoid. Who can blame them? Death is a rather depressing thing to talk about. And no one likes to talk about depressing things. "Why focus on death? Just live!" they say. Some people would even suggest that talking about death is pointless, because it's completely unknowable. After all, how can you have a meaningful discussion about something that is unknowable?

Some philosophers argue that one shouldn't even worry about death at all, because death could not ever really touch you. So it's best that one be indifferent to death.

The reasoning behind this is quiet simple. It goes like this: death is not really possible for you. Because when death comes, you are gone. Death is not something you can experience, because you and death cannot be in the same place at the same time. For you cannot experience death, in the strict philosophical sense, you have no reason to be concerned with it.

If you fear the actual event of death, if you fret about what death will actually be like, you are wasting your time. You and death cannot be in the same place at the same time. It makes no sense to worry about it.

Of course, you may worry about dying, how you die. But that's concerning the suffering you may feel before death, and not concerning the actual event of death itself. 

On Kierkegaard

Soren Kierkegaard was born into an extremely wealthy Dutch family. His father, Michael, was a successful, smart, faithful, but, also, very quiet and sad businessman. Like father like son, Kierkegaard would inherit his father's qualities, but he would not use his intelligence to pursue financial rewards. Instead, he used his wits to found a new school of philosophy: Existentialism.

Kierkegaard is often credited for making philosophy "personal." Before him, philosophers focused on humanity as a whole, the world as it is, the fundamental truths of the universe, the nature of God, and so forth. Unlike the philosophical "world-view" prior to his time, Kierkegaard's philosophical point of view starts at the individual, human level.

Kierkegaard started on a path to self-discovery. He discovered many truths, truths about himself and the human condition. Kierkegaard hated, and therefore rejected, traditional pieties and systematic answers of philosophy and the Christian church of his time. 

Kierkegaard created a new, sort of, version of faith. He claimed that faith is not grounded in reason or rationality. Rather, faith is a real, personal choice, one that cannot be validated or justified by reason. He coined what is now called "the leap of faith."

What did he mean by this? Kierkegaard asserts that reasoned calculations or heavenly church commandments cannot answer questions about life, about how to live, about what to believe, about what to do, and so on. Answers to these sort of questions are found in one's self. One must answer these questions in the deepest chasms of one's individual soul. 

Wu Wei: Effortless Action

Wu-Wei is a prominent concept in Taoism. In English, it literally means non-action, do without doing. And, as a result, it is often misinterpreted as laziness or passivity. Words quickly lose their meaning once they are translated.

In Taoist writings, Wu-Wei can better be translated into English as "not forcing." This is a better translation. "Not forcing" loses the least amount of meaning in the English translation.

So what is Wu-Wei? Wu-Wei, as we have defined earlier, means "not forcing." "Not forcing" means going with the flow of things, swimming with the current, trimming sails to the wind. In other words, do not fight the natural flow of things.

An example of Wu-Wei in practice is a man who uses a sail. Instead of paddling, the wise man uses a sail. He lets nature do the work for him. He is not forcing the boat to move by fighting the water with a paddle. Rather, with the use of the sail, he makes the boat go with the wind. 

The wise man exerts no effort, yet his boat moves just as fast as a boat being rowed by a hundred men. This is Wu-Wei in action, doing without doing, effortless action, not forcing. 

On Nirvana

Nirvana is the ultimate goal of Buddhism. Nirvana literally means, in English, "blow out." Many people believe that Nirvana is the blowing out of desire. Imagine that desire is a flame, and that Nirvana is sort of blowing out the flame.

There is a sort of problem here in the English translation and interpretation of Nirvana. "Blow out" is not quite the proper term. One does not "blow out" desire from one's life. But, rather, one "lets go" of desire. I will elaborate.

If one were to "blow out" the flame of desire, then that would be rather tedious. Nirvana is not achieved easily. It takes a life-time of spiritual meditation and devotion. The flame of desire burns with blazing intensity, and it is not easily "blown out." Now, imagine yourself constantly trying to "blow out" the flame of desire. You would run out of breath quickly and become exhausted. 

The path to Nirvana should be an effortless one. What do I mean by that? If one were to try to blow out the flame of desire, one is consciously trying to get rid of desire. If one consciously tries to get rid of desire by blowing it out of one's self, one will never attain Nirvana. Why? Because when one makes a conscious effort to rid oneself of desire, one is also desiring not to desire. Do you see the problem? It's sort of like an infinite loop. 

So instead of "blowing out," one should "breath out." Let go of desire. Do not even think about desire. Do not even think about getting rid of it. Rather, loosen your grip, relax your mind, and breath out. Little by little, the flame of desire will burn out naturally, since there is no longer anyone that fuels the flame. 

So the secret to Nirvana is not to fight the flame, not to try to blow it out. But instead, one should breath out and let go of one's desire, not kick it out, but let it go. That's what Nirvana really is, letting go.

On Freedom and Man

"Man is free; Man is Freedom" - Jean-Paul Sartre

What makes Man a distinct being from others? There are many types of being. A tree is a type of being and so are dogs, cats, and even apples. Man is one type of being among many others in this world. While we haven’t really given much thought into it, we can confidently conclude that Man is somehow radically different from all the other beings. Something about Man makes him distinct — something that makes him greatly special. Man is not regarded as just one type of being among others — in the same way that the letter  a is regarded as just one type of letter in the alphabet. There is something totally unique about us humans; something about our being that  is completely distinct compared to that of others.

It is highly obvious that there are many types of beings or entities. They are all around us. Each of these entities or beings have something special about it, something that makes it the particular type of entity that it is. In metaphysics, this is called the entity’s nature or essence — its native or inherent qualities that make it what it is. Let us think of a tree. What can be said about its nature? Well, a tree is tall and it sways when the wind blows on it; it has leaves and a woody trunk. These characteristics and other qualities make up the nature of a tree or its essence — what it is for something to be a tree. A being that doesn’t have these attributes is not a tree. This notion applies to all beings. All these beings, including Man, have a distinct nature that make them the particular being that they are. However, I will not enumerate all the qualities that make Man what he is, but I will focus on one fundamental feature of Man that completely distinguishes him from the rest.

So what then makes Man unique among all other beings? What makes him not only unique but also exceptionable —  the most special kind of being? That which makes Man what he is — at the most fundamental level — is none other than freedom. Freedom is the fundamental characteristic of the human being. It is surely the feature that makes us the exceptional creatures that we are. Consider: something that fails to be tall, to have leaves and a woody trunk, is not a tree. In like manner, a being that fails to have freedom, a being that is not free, is not Man. Man is the only being that can choose, the only being that has free will; Man is the only being that is free. He is the only being that can choose what he becomes, can choose how to live his life; therefore, freedom is the attribute that Man shares with no other being. Without freedom, Man would be no more special than a tree, dog, cat, or even an apple. Freedom is the most essential feature to us. Nothing, not even our rationality, is more important to us than our freedom.