In Philosophy, what is your comment on the two quotations?

Question

1. "Learn to die and you will learn to live, because nobody will learn to live who did not learn to die."(A circle) (The Book of the Craft of Dying)

2. "He who dies but does not really perish enjoys long life." (Lao Tzu)

Thanks in Advance.

Answer 1

1. This first quote is almost exactly what Montaine said but I can't find the quote. he said that those who fear death are not ready to seize life.

2. Lao Tzu was purported to live forever, he told Confucius he was really old 3,000 years ago. Many taoist quotes are paradoxical. It means wanting to live ages you. Being detached from the fear of death is in effect a fountain of youth.

I'll leave you with one more quote:

“To philosophise is nothing else than to prepare oneself for death.” - Michel de Montaine

Answer 2

I guess that when you know that you're going to die, you want to make the best of the time you have left.

In that sense, You remember not to take life for granted. With the belief that you may die at any time, you then believe that you should seize opportunity when it arrives.

Those are just my thoughts...

Answer 3

i think the first one is talking about conquering your fear of death. once you no longer fear death you are able to live life fully because death is a part of life.

the second one is talking about people who have near death experiences  

Answer 4

G We all must die. For most people this is a subject to be feared and avoided. Only by understanding death, can we be free to live without fear and avoidance.

Answer 5

i guess when you accept that eventually, all men will meet the same end, which is dying, then you will know the true value of human life.

one of my college professors once said that one must leave a legacy, something that will stay in the minds of people even if they are already gone. i guess that's the meaning of your second quote.

Answer 6

Basically, human being fears death; if you had conquered the fear, then you will learn to live. Living with the fear of death is actually living in the  shadow of death.

This is similar to the first quotation.

Lao Tzu is saying : He who dies but does not,

really(truly) will die enjoying long life.( a wholesome life)

Answer 7

This is like what was said by the Muslim Prophet, Muhammad, when he is reported to have said:

"Die before you die."

The Sufis use that tradition a lot and they are among the mystics of the world.

Or the Buddhist Zen saying:

"If you see the Buddha, kill him."

A pretty cool koan if you ask me, and the simplest of them all (which is saying something, since they are often regarded as meaningless sentences).

All in all, it seems that the author wishes to express the following:

One should kill the ego inside them. They should lose their identity so-to-speak, and that's the only time they can truly have an identity. In other words, they should stop asserting themselves and simply blend in with the nature around them. Only when they are dead, they are alive. Confused?

Your second quote shows that by death, it does not me physical death, but egoistical death.

Now, one may say that all this is paradoxical and absurd. But one can show how it is not by using the following example:

Say James was a humble guy. We would approve of his modesty. If I was humble, I would be very glad about it.

Now, some wise man comes to me and says, "If you wish to be proud, be humble."

In effect, he is telling me, "If you wish to be proud, don't be proud."

Paradoxical, but we accept it as truth.

Now, say I suddenly became humble. At that moment I would look at myself and say, "wow! I'm humble." And I would gain a sense of pride. In that split-second, I have lost my modesty and there is no reason to be proud anymore.

The same goes with these "deaths".

First quote: Learn to have no self-identity and you will learn to have one.

That is why so many selfless pious people are regarded as greats in our history. Proud people are seen as arrogant greats, which are always second-best.

Second quote: He who loses self-identity and desires but does not physically perish enjoys long life.

Less desires, less worries, longer life - psychology!

However, let us not think that our major religions do not include this mystical approach in their dogma.

Jesus Christ is said to have said as wriiten in the gospels that humans should become like children before God, to belittle themselves before His Majesty and Glory.

I have already mentioned that the Prophet of Islam has also denounced self-appraisal and self-worship is a sin of the highest order in the Islamic faith.

The Abrahamic faiths see Pride as the Devil's sin.

However, these very same religions and also the philosophies and psychological theories have continued to say that one should not belittle the soul in the wrong ways. For example, one should not submit to humiliation. One should always be strong-willed.

Why have they said "do not desire" on one hand and "be strong-willed" on another?

This is due to the fact that a balance is required. One must be strong-willed, but not for desire. One must will goodness and happiness and not carnal desires and evil ideas.

So, while the above quotes do support the death of the ego, they do not support the destruction of the ego - the death of the ego is more like what the Quran says: "The peaceful ego."

It is the ego that is calm and soft. Not lustful and destructive, wreaking havoc, causing emotional disorder.

It is amazing how much literature is out there by the brilliant minds of our history, yet we seem to disregard most of them as mythical and superstitious, when in fact they are abundant with wisdom and insight.