Memento Mori

Memento Mori (Latin)--"Remember you must die."

In the Middle Ages, a popular school of art arose which was known as Memento Mori. Essentially, the term means, "Remember you must die," and the art form was designed to remind people of their mortality.

Remembering my own mortality is easier now than it was before. I thought, as we all tend to do in our youth, that I would live forever. I managed to hold onto that belief until I fell apart some years back and found myself in Damascus facing my own demise. The strange part about that whole experience was that I did not die, and for the past several years, I have been left to wonder why.

Given the utter and catastrophic conclusion of my dreams after I fell apart and committed a crime, I still have no idea why I'm here. I do try each day to find reasons, but like Marc Antony when he knew that the jig was up and Octavian was going to kill him at Actium, I have let go of hope and therefore let go of any anxiety about my demise.

Is what I now feel a tragedy or a moment of enlightenment? I'm not sure exactly. But I know that by expecting absolutely nothing from life, I also feel no sense of anxiety about it. Ergo, I don't care if I die. In fact, I will welcome death like a long-lost friend and fall into her arms and rest eternally in peace.

The Buddha spoke most eloquently of letting go of desires--i.e. hopes and dreams of earthly delight. By doing so, he said wisely, we become free and death is not fearful. In fact, as Thich Nhat Hanh says, we have nothing left to fear in death since it is merely another phase of our becoming and the gateway to potential nirvana.

I remind all my readers today, then, to remember you will die. Make your life simpler, delight in the small miracles, and forget about the rest.