Comments on The Politics of Well-Being: The Memento Mori

I suspect that the reason that "The Memento M...

2009-06-03T07:22:32.189-07:00

I suspect that the reason that "The Memento Mori" went out of use as a philosophical training technique is because a certain unhealthy negativity that sometimes goes with it, in the form of disgust with the human body and human life.

In any case, among the Stoics, it was most favored by Marcus Aurelius, and statements like “Stop letting yourself be distracted...Instead, as if you were dying right now, despise your flesh. A mess of blood, pieces of bone, a woven tangle of nerves, veins, arteries” are not to be found (to the best of my recollection) in Epictetus or Seneca.

In Epictetus, there are occasions where he uses terms like "my wretched body" (Discourses 1.1.24), but there is no hint of disgust with his body in that. He is just saying that, for the sake of maintaining virtue, a Stoic should be willing to face the imprisonment of his physical body or the death of his body.

Salve.

Malcolm

You can certainly write Julian. One of my favourit...

2009-05-25T13:16:47.771-07:00

You can certainly write Julian. One of my favourite quotes is the one that says what happens to the dead when those who weep over their ashes are dead.

Your essay was very thoughtful and well-written. Y...

2009-05-16T13:31:00.000-07:00

Your essay was very thoughtful and well-written. You are right, people do look over the truth of impermanence.

Regarding your comment on modern Buddhism, you are right that the tantric razzle-dazzle overshadows more fundamental truths. I find the Stoic contemplation of death to be closer to what the Buddha actually said.

I think you are also right about Goth subculture. They tend to use thinking of death as a shock tactic; not as a means of spiritual development.

I wish you success with your book, and your continuing spiritual quest.

Under the wide and starry sky Dig the grave and le...

2009-05-12T10:53:00.000-07:00

Under the wide and starry sky
Dig the grave and let me lie.
Glad did I live and glad did I die
And I lay me down with a will.

This be the verse you grave for me:
Here he lies where he longs to be.
Home is the sailor, home from sea
And the hunter home from the hill.

-RL Stevenson

Do you think is it possible to "gladly" die?

CJ