Three Kinds of Death
For the further reflection on the Big Three (Beauty, Goodness and Truth), it is indispensable to talk about death. Again if we explain somewhat metaphysically, death is related to the Birth of Consciousness and the Birth of Time. For, when we were able to have the concept of time, the so-called linear continuation from the past to the present to the future has been recognized or perceived. As I explained in "Life Conditions," this concept is derived from our agricultural skill that the fruits we have now are the result of our past seeding and the fruit we will have in the future is the result of our present seeding.
If we have our sense of temporal continuation, then we cannot avoid thinking of the beginning and the end. Existentially speaking (micro level), your beginning is the time when you could have your consciousness -- when you start thinking of yourself in your mind. It is just shortly (several years) after your birth. In the terms of Spiral Dynamics (Micro) it is the emergence of Purple meme (right after the Beige meme) in your consciousness level. On the other hand, biologically speaking, the beginning is the same as your own physical birth. Literally, the birth day is when your life has started. But then, as the other edge of your continuum, death is the end of your life existentially and biologically.
Now, if we think of our death from the point of view of the Big Three, that reminds me of the book by Takeshi Yoro. It is written in Japanese and has been one of the bestsellers in Japan, the title is "Shi no Kabe" – its literal translation is "The Wall of Death". It is a just light essay that he dictated based on his thought and experience as a retired anatomist. His main profession had been the anatomy and teaching this discipline in the university for a long time as a professor, at the same time also wrote a lot of philosophical books and intellectual prose from his unique point of view as an anatomist.
As we know, the main activity of the anatomy is to study dead bodies. In doing so, the students of anatomy usually have to face numerous dead bodies everyday as their activities. Then, in such practices they can get used to face any kind of dead bodies without unnecessarily fear. In other words, to be an expert in the field of anatomy means that you can treat dead bodies as mere objects. But then, he confesses, even in such conditions it is so hard to face the dead body of someone you know very well. If so, then how much more hard and painful to face the dead body of someone you love. I do not think that even professional anatomists can face such dead bodies without any emotional, psychological attachments.
In such insight, the author is saying that there are basically three kinds of death. The death of someone you don't know, that is he or any anatomists face in their everyday activities. The second is the death of someone you know or sometimes you love. For example, the death of one of your family members, your friends, or your small community members can be under this second death. And the third is your own death. Of course, anatomists cannot study their own dead bodies, however, not only anatomists but everybody can never avoid thinking and facing their own death.
Thus, he holds that the quality of death may be differed depending on what kind of death you are talking about, whether the death of someone you do not know, or the death of someone you love, or the death of yourself.
In the first death, we can maintain the eye of anatomist, that is to say, the eye of natural scientist. In the second death, we can no longer maintain such objective attitude, but rather the matter of empathy may be involved in facing this death. We inevitably have the collective sense to be related his or her death to your own death or life. And in the third death, it is the termination of your existential entity in this world and the termination of your consciousness. It is now nobody's death, but your own death. You must be the one to leave this world; you must be the one to separate from everyone and everything you love.
When I was reading his book, of course as you noticed, I was reminded of the Big Three (Beauty, Goodness and Truth). In the first death we maintain the objective, scientific attitude; we are the one to seek for Truth. Probably in studying the mechanism of the human bodies, we can see the mystery of God's works since our human bodies are the works of art and the artist is God just like everything else in this world. But in this appreciation we are still and merely the detached beholder, just like someone who appreciates the works of art in the museum. We are not really involved with the very process that this artwork has been created by the artist God.
In the second death we are the participant observers in the process of creation. The death of our beloved is so painful, but paradoxically such extreme pain reminds us the fact that we are also the part of God's creation. Artists feel their extreme pain when their works of art have been destroyed. In the same way, God feels the extreme pain when His work of art has been died and we can also feel almost the same pain as God does. In this recognition somewhat we can see God that which manifests Goodness -- the collective participation into the world and God.
And in the third death you are now the artist of your own work of art – your body and life, at the same time God is also the artist of your work of art. In other words, God and you are the co-artists, co-creators of your body and life. That is why; our own death means the termination of our own work of art and at the same time the termination of God's work of art.
In this recognition you can completely share what God is thinking and trying to do in this world, because He is your co-creators. Then, His will can be manifested as something Beautiful in your non-dual recognition -- each moment of your/His creation that can include the moment of death, of course.
If we have our sense of temporal continuation, then we cannot avoid thinking of the beginning and the end. Existentially speaking (micro level), your beginning is the time when you could have your consciousness -- when you start thinking of yourself in your mind. It is just shortly (several years) after your birth. In the terms of Spiral Dynamics (Micro) it is the emergence of Purple meme (right after the Beige meme) in your consciousness level. On the other hand, biologically speaking, the beginning is the same as your own physical birth. Literally, the birth day is when your life has started. But then, as the other edge of your continuum, death is the end of your life existentially and biologically.
Now, if we think of our death from the point of view of the Big Three, that reminds me of the book by Takeshi Yoro. It is written in Japanese and has been one of the bestsellers in Japan, the title is "Shi no Kabe" – its literal translation is "The Wall of Death". It is a just light essay that he dictated based on his thought and experience as a retired anatomist. His main profession had been the anatomy and teaching this discipline in the university for a long time as a professor, at the same time also wrote a lot of philosophical books and intellectual prose from his unique point of view as an anatomist.
As we know, the main activity of the anatomy is to study dead bodies. In doing so, the students of anatomy usually have to face numerous dead bodies everyday as their activities. Then, in such practices they can get used to face any kind of dead bodies without unnecessarily fear. In other words, to be an expert in the field of anatomy means that you can treat dead bodies as mere objects. But then, he confesses, even in such conditions it is so hard to face the dead body of someone you know very well. If so, then how much more hard and painful to face the dead body of someone you love. I do not think that even professional anatomists can face such dead bodies without any emotional, psychological attachments.
In such insight, the author is saying that there are basically three kinds of death. The death of someone you don't know, that is he or any anatomists face in their everyday activities. The second is the death of someone you know or sometimes you love. For example, the death of one of your family members, your friends, or your small community members can be under this second death. And the third is your own death. Of course, anatomists cannot study their own dead bodies, however, not only anatomists but everybody can never avoid thinking and facing their own death.
Thus, he holds that the quality of death may be differed depending on what kind of death you are talking about, whether the death of someone you do not know, or the death of someone you love, or the death of yourself.
In the first death, we can maintain the eye of anatomist, that is to say, the eye of natural scientist. In the second death, we can no longer maintain such objective attitude, but rather the matter of empathy may be involved in facing this death. We inevitably have the collective sense to be related his or her death to your own death or life. And in the third death, it is the termination of your existential entity in this world and the termination of your consciousness. It is now nobody's death, but your own death. You must be the one to leave this world; you must be the one to separate from everyone and everything you love.
When I was reading his book, of course as you noticed, I was reminded of the Big Three (Beauty, Goodness and Truth). In the first death we maintain the objective, scientific attitude; we are the one to seek for Truth. Probably in studying the mechanism of the human bodies, we can see the mystery of God's works since our human bodies are the works of art and the artist is God just like everything else in this world. But in this appreciation we are still and merely the detached beholder, just like someone who appreciates the works of art in the museum. We are not really involved with the very process that this artwork has been created by the artist God.
In the second death we are the participant observers in the process of creation. The death of our beloved is so painful, but paradoxically such extreme pain reminds us the fact that we are also the part of God's creation. Artists feel their extreme pain when their works of art have been destroyed. In the same way, God feels the extreme pain when His work of art has been died and we can also feel almost the same pain as God does. In this recognition somewhat we can see God that which manifests Goodness -- the collective participation into the world and God.
And in the third death you are now the artist of your own work of art – your body and life, at the same time God is also the artist of your work of art. In other words, God and you are the co-artists, co-creators of your body and life. That is why; our own death means the termination of our own work of art and at the same time the termination of God's work of art.
In this recognition you can completely share what God is thinking and trying to do in this world, because He is your co-creators. Then, His will can be manifested as something Beautiful in your non-dual recognition -- each moment of your/His creation that can include the moment of death, of course.
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