“Who teaches about dying, teaches about living.” – Michel de Montaigne
“Where do we come from and where are we going? This question seems to reverberate from the depths of ancient times to our present day, leaving us equally amazed and confused, just as the first humans likely were. Across different regions and throughout different eras, this question has not lost its intensity and significance. As modern people, we belong to a generation that first set foot on the Moon, a generation that, at least in thought, seeks to expand our earthly presence to other planets within the solar system. The explosion of technology has allowed the people of the 20th century to embark on space travel, and it has also, according to scientists, significantly extended our lifespan and eased the burden of diseases and many other hardships that life brings. Perhaps unprecedented in human history was the trust that the people of the 20th century placed in the possibility of achieving imminent prosperity and a life filled with material abundance.” bzorna religija ili filozofija nije izbjegla razmišljanje o tajni života poslije smrti. I dok neki vjeruju u postojanje zagrobnog života, drugi smatraju da smrt označava kraj svega. Taj misterij ostaje neriješen, iako su mnogi pokušavali razotkriti njegovu prirodu. Religion and no reflection on humanity have remained indifferent to this problem. Moreover, the attitude towards death at the level of a human community or culture, both in the past and in contemporary times, has greatly determined the attitude towards life, as well as towards the nature of human beings as a whole. The worldview in which death has mainly a natural and not necessarily negative connotation belonged to those cultural circles that were more concerned with the mental and spiritual aspects of human beings.
Russian and American anthropologist and sociologist Pitrim Sorokin, in his work Social and Cultural Dynamics, holds, among other things, that the attitude towards death is a significant divide between traditional and modern societies. In those societies and cultures that he refers to as traditional, there is a prevalent affirmatory attitude towards death; these are almost all cultures and religious systems in which the concept of the sacred occupies a central place. A similar opinion is held by the French anthropologist and historian of religion, Mircea Eliade. In his great work History of Beliefs and Religious Ideas, Eliade argues that contemporary man lives in a radically desacralized world in which the question of death is forgotten. According to Eliade, in all traditional societies, a mythical or religious worldview prevails, which determines the position of man in the cosmos. According to this worldview, man is not only a physical being subject to perishability and transience but is also composed of a soul and a spirit. Therefore, although it is evident that his body decays with death, it is not the end of his existence as a being; it is only the end of one mode of existence but simultaneously an introduction to another, equally significant one. In fact, in death, man is reborn into a spiritual existence which, according to traditional beliefs, is closer to his essence. This birth is a significant turning point in human life; it enables him to enter into a spiritual life which tradition calls true existence. The worldview that prevails in Egyptian literature is well-known. The dance of the dead: earthly life is only a preparation for the higher, afterlife. In the myth of Osiris, the entire mythical scenario is told, emphasizing the continuation of existence, but in a different way. In this context, death enables the birth of beings at a higher level, so it is not surprising that symbols of death are associated with germination, sprouting, and the development of an embryo. It is also known that in pre-Columbian civilizations, the deceased were buried in a fetal position, awaiting a new birth. “The living are harvested, the dead are sown,” is a ritual saying of the Incas. Greek mythology, connected to mysterious religions, is not far from that either, especially the myth of Demeter, which emphasizes the secret of seeds, sprouts, and mature grains. Interestingly, the ancient Greeks used the expression “changing life” instead of the term “dying”. In the Bhagavad Gita, a holy Hindu epic, Krishna clearly tells Arjuna: You mourn what there is no need to mourn, and speak to me of wisdom! The wise know neither mourning for the dead, nor mourning for the living. / Never has there been a time when Oh, if only these leaders weren’t around, neither will anyone of us ever stop being. / The soul passes through our bodies in childhood, youth, old age, to enter another body: this does not confuse the wise ones.
Similarly, we must not forget monotheistic religions such as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and their original relationship to the afterlife, which is explicitly affirmative.
But it is obvious that human preoccupations have changed over time. Because of the desire to live life to the fullest. Living and dying
Despite all efforts to prolong and sustain existence as much as possible, failure in this regard is certain: man, regardless of all his capabilities, aspirations, and desires, cannot prevent the transience and perishability of the material world to which he himself belongs with his physical being. This does not mean that he should neglect his bodily existence. But certainly, making his physical existence the only possible one is to close oneself off to many other possibilities. It is impossible to make what is transient by its nature eternal. According to Buddhism, this is the source of all suffering. And every suffering arises from ignorance. Ignorance of the essential things of life makes life itself narrow and closed. Because if man is understood as exclusively a physical phenomenon, condemned to laborious survival in a world of transience, then indeed he resembles the mythical Sisyphus.
Therefore, the question of The end and meaning of death always bring with it the question of the purpose and meaning of life. For ancient philosophers, two moments in human life were pivotal and critical: the moment of birth and the moment of death. The human drama begins the moment we are born, and it concludes in the moment of death. Therefore, two skills are extremely important and interconnected: the art of living and the closely related art of dying. It is essential for a person to live life correctly, although it doesn’t necessarily have to be the case. Life can be lived incorrectly, and life can be meaningful and meaningless. However, it would be best if it were correct and meaningful.
In ancient times, philosophy was considered to teach people about living a more correct and meaningful life, a wiser and more beautiful life. Likewise, it was supposed to teach them about a meaningful death. Just like life, death can be meaningful, or it can be meaningless and futile. It can also be wise and even beautiful and sublime. There are many well-known examples from antiquity (e.g., Socrates, Seneca) and many modern examples of meaningful deaths, where individuals willingly sacrifice themselves for a greater cause or purpose. Death is often perceived as a privileged moment by certain philosophers (and many others). That is why Socrates, just before his own death, said: “I have heard that one should die in devout silence. So, remain quiet and be brave!”
Plato, on the other hand, believes that a true philosopher is one who is not afraid of death. Moreover, according to him, death signifies the liberation of the soul from the constraints of the body and transience, allowing us to more easily attain knowledge of eternal ideas, which constantly elude us in the “prison of the body.” This is why he declares: “For no one knows whether death may not be the greatest of all blessings for men.”
The enigma of death
Today, death has been expelled from our lives; it is not spoken of, and one must not even think about it. Instead, we must escape from it using well-devised systems of self-forgetting through opiates. Admittedly, death is abundant in movies and television, but such deaths are trivialized in crime stories or distanced from our lives by great spatial and emotional distances, as is the case with many global catastrophes and wars. It seems that today, death dares not show its face. Wandering among the living. Just like wisdom, it seems that a beautiful death has also disappeared from our world.
Yet now, when humans have conquered the entire planet, when they contemplate many theories about the origin and end of the universe, when they explore distant galaxies and investigate the possibilities of life similar to ours far beyond Earth’s orbit, perhaps now is the moment for the extremes of the macrocosm and microcosm to touch and for man to return to himself in order to provide new answers to ancient questions. Perhaps man will find it easier to adapt to death if he aligns his own life with what is essential. Perhaps life and death have a common essence that modern man has yet to discover. Perhaps then, Heraclitus’ thought will become much clearer: We need to live from death and die from life.