Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 7.32

About death: Whether it is a dispersion, or a resolution into atoms, or annihilation, it is either extinction or change.

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 7 (tr Long)

I have known some people who never really consider their own deaths, and so while the concept may be intelligible to them in theory, they end up thinking of themselves as practically immortal. The setting may change, but they assume they are just going to go on as they currently are.

I have known other people who think of nothing but their deaths, hoping for eternal rewards, and fearing eternal punishments. Yet even though the setting may change, one of either puffy clouds or of scorching fire, they still assume they are just going to go on as they currently are.

Yet however we may view death, shouldn’t the most apparent aspect of it be that it means becoming something quite different than what we are now?  We surely know that our bodies will no longer be what they were, and whether our awareness carries on or ceases entirely, it will have been fundamentally transformed in either case.

I am all too familiar with the temptation of wanting to keep things the same. Stability seems to bring with it comfort, and change seems to bring with it uncertainty. I need to remember that all sorts of modifications are completely natural, and simply parts within the harmony of the whole.

The Universe is an expression of activity itself, and activity means that things are always in motion, proceeding from one state to another. This does not need to seem frightening. It can be seen as liberating, because all change brings with it the possibility of growth, instead of succumbing to mere stagnation.

I have sometimes ignored death, and at other times I have obsessed about it too, and part of the problem is that none of us can really speak of it with very much certainty. But whether I end up becoming something new, or ceasing entirely, I can still rest assured that it will surely be for the sake of what is best. Nature is always directed by purpose, and Providence does nothing in vain. There is the deepest comfort in that.

Written in 11/2007