Comments on: Delete Yourself (Part II)

By: wizardsmoke

wizardsmoke — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 05:56:51 +0000

I’m sure it’s unhealthy to become obsessed with the idea of death, just as with anything. Contemplation of one’s transient life is a dangerous method to be obsessed with because it’s so extreme; as opposed to typical lay meditation practices like zazen or vippassana, which are more gradual methods and focus on the breath (but honestly, most stuff people practice today are the watered-down hippie versions of real practices). These aren’t quite as scary because the individual isn’t thrown head-over-heels into the explosive, roaring power of the present moment. But that is what happens to everyone regardless, every so often in those moments of horrific violence or heartbreak or crushing love — that make up life’s memorable experiences.

So yeah, it’s dangerous if you don’t know what you’re doing. Kind of like tantric practices or magick. And almost any kind of dogma is bad, ultimately.

By: der Einzige

der Einzige — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 04:44:45 +0000

I certainly think it’s valid, too. Also, it’s not like I despise the fellows I mentioned. Being both a philosopher and a martial artist, I have enormous admiration for both Socrates and the samurai, but, for the same reasons, I wouldn’t identify (wholly) with either.

The intended meaning of my comment was this: lacking a prejudice towards any particular aspect of existence would allow one to fully enjoy all of them. To me, that means it’s just as bad to be obsessed with death as it is with living…both obessions commit the same error of equating possession with satisfaction. Neither are “uncontrived” or authentic attitudes towards existence.

Or am I full of it?

By: wizardsmoke

wizardsmoke — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 22:53:40 +0000

Yeah, that’s certainly true, although I don’t know if cowardly is the word I would choose. And I don’t know what it means to be attached to death, although people certainly have fantasies about the afterlife. Though I don’t think that would describe these gents.

My point was that there was nothing in life that these guys still were desperately grasping onto in their lives, so they made a strong example and impression of their teachings in openly accepting their deaths. The parallel comparison with old “pagan” warrior cults was that people looked forward to dying in combat because life was boring without combat. A crude description, but I think my point is valid.

By: der Einzige

der Einzige — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 07:33:37 +0000

Hmmm…I think my surrogate for violence is the difficult, torturous prose I like to read. Hence the necessity of being an *angry* nerd!

It seems true enough that, if you can’t live well, at least you can die well. That truth, however, is contingent on the reason why one can’t live well. For either Socrates or a samurai, to denigrate one’s present existence in favor of a hereafter seems awfully…cowardly? Detachment towards life doesn’t mean much if one is just attached to something else.