Death

At first sight, a Samurai and a Buddhist seem like polar opposites. One undergoes hard physical training and fights brutal battles. The other retreats to a monastic temple for a lifetime, focusing on long sessions of chanting, study and meditation. Despite their differences, they also have many things in common; they are disciplined & hard working. Both are experts in being present in the moment and they shared a peculiar habit, frowned upon in modern times; they contemplated death daily.

Both philosophies believed that contemplating death brings one closer to a good life. Western philosophers also shared this idea. In fact, many different philosophies contemplated death because they were convinced of the benefits. Socrates even famously said that the true philosopher does nothing but practice dying and being dead.

Meditating on mortality is only depressing if you miss the point. The Buddhists called their contemplation of death “Maranasati” (translated to “mindfulness of death”). The Western philosophers called it “Memento Mori” (Latin for “remember that you have to die”). For Samurai, it was part of their Bushido (”the way of the warrior”). Contemplating death was an essential part of life for all of them.

All of them believed the same thing: comfort with death brings better living.

Our frailty never occurs to us. We don’t prioritize - living our lives like we have time in abundance. We don’t consider that the time we are devoting to somebody or something today could be our last.

Reminding yourself death is coming adds urgency. It forces you to prioritize, especially because you don’t know when it is coming.

They lived with the awareness that death is coming, but with the joy and gratitude that in the present moment, they were still among the living. For the person that contemplates death, each day -and each moment- is a gift. Contemplating death is intimately connected with practicing gratitude.

Contemplation of death also adds perspective; the things you worry about will seem trivial in comparison. Yes, the weather sucks, traffic also sucks, but when you compare it to death; those things seem pointless to worry about. The more you contemplate death, the more you realize how insignificant and impermanent most of your worries are.

Initially, thinking about death will probably instill some fear in you; that’s the point. Never addressing this fear is not a way to live, much less a way to die, ignoring your fear only increases the fear of the thing itself. It’s better to confront that fear now, than to spend the last moments of your life anxious, or worse, to spend your whole life anxious. Just like with any other fear, the more you expose yourself to it, the more it loses its power.

Socrates used to say death is like some prankster in a scary mask, dressed as a bogeyman to frighten small children. The wise man carefully removes the mask and, looking behind it, he finds nothing worth fearing. - Donald J. Robertson

The Buddhists and Stoics (Stoicism, a western philosophy found in Athens) reminded themselves that even their family and loved ones could leave them at any moment.

Be grateful for the things you may take for granted, don’t rush through life.

Someone once told me that time was a predator that stalked us all our lives. I rather believe that time is a companion who goes with us on the journey and reminds us to cherish every moment, because it will never come again. What we leave behind is not as important as how we've lived. After all, we're only mortal. - Jean-Luc Picard

All we need to benefit from these advantages, and to start living better and more grateful lives, is a simple reminder. Death is coming, it is something we often forget, we need to remind ourselves regularly of it.

Roman generals, when on a parade, famously used their servants for this; they followed them around and whispered to them that they were dying ("Memento Mori" - "Remember you are mortal."), as a reminder to stay humble, even though the streets of Rome were cheering them on.