Making peace with death (and maybe with life?) with Alan Watts

[Placo]

Alan Watts was a philosopher who had a positive vision of both death and life, his vision of death and beyond has always fascinated me; his death itself appears mysterious when reading his Wikipedia page, from what I understand it seems like a well-disguised suicide thanks to the help of friends.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Watts

Here are some videos where he talks about the topic of death:

 

[lacrimosa]

However brilliant Alan Watts was, I couldn't bite into his philosophy. It always seems like he is just on the verge of sharing something enlightening and then he changes the subject to something else entirely. I know he doesn't spoon feed which is fine, but I find his philosophy is very foundational vs. fundamental.

Maybe that's his point, you have to find your own meaning in life and even his philosophy, maybe that's why his ideas are beautiful.

 

[Placo]

If any one of us could at this moment be as one about to die, genuinely and honestly, we would understand the mystery of life, because death is the source of life; just as we see in nature when the leaves fall from a tree they mold and rot and this supplies humus from which more plants can grow; it's a cycle. But in every way symbolic and otherwise human beings try to stop that cycle, it is not therefore natural for us to wish to prolong life indefinitely, but we live in a culture where it has been rubbed into us in every conceivable way that to die is a terrible thing, and that is a tremendous disease from which our culture in particular suffers and we notice firstly in the way in which death is swept under the carpet. When one gets to an extreme, that is to say, to the point where you realize that there is nothing you can do about life, nothing you could not do about life then you're the mosquito abiding beyond boom. Well so in the same he said "look, you heard a bomb coming at you, you could hear it whistle, you knew it was right above you and headed straight at you and that you were finished. And you accepted it. And suddenly there was a strange feeling that everything is absolutely clear, you suddenly see that there isn't a grain of dust in the whole universe that's in the wrong place, did you understand completely, absolutely, totally what's all about as you can't say what it is".

 

[Placo]

I'll use this thread for my own personal acceptance of death, maybe post some Alan content about it from time to time.

Alan says in the paragraph I posted that death is the source of life, nothing could be more true, he gives the example of the dead leaf that falls from the tree and by joining the humus it gives greater vigor to the birth of new plants, I would like go further to give the example of how life actually arises from death, if we think about human life this clearly seems false to us but going back billions of years, to the first forms of life, we can affirm that life was actually born from a dead environment.

Death is not to be feared, society has always instilled in us that dying is a horrible thing, the worst thing that can happen to a human being, in reality suicide itself is proof that there are worse evils in life than death.

I personally will have to face a double obstacle, I have to work both to overcome the fear of death and have the courage to face a method of suicide that is not exactly painless, so I need serious mental preparation.



This video gives me an incredible sense of inner peace, I could commit suicide listening to it to stay calm.

In any case I think that life and death are just two sides of the same coin, perhaps to see death fully positively one must also see life positively even if for a suicidal person this seems absurd.

Another piece that gives me an absurd inner peace is this:



I like the theme of the song, it talks about returning home and in some way I would say overcoming one's fears even if it remains quite cryptic, well I'm not religious but I really like this idea of returning home. Even in this forum I have to say that I feel a bit at home.

I finish this initial reflection with a short video by Alan which can be interpreted in many ways.

 

[Placo]

Another thing I would like to point out about how society tends to see death as negative is its representation, why does it have to be represented in such a disturbing way and not as a young girl who promises to free you from all evil?

I don't know if the fear of death is innate, probably many animals can't even understand it, but cultural influence certainly plays a very powerful role in human beings.

 

[Placo]

We must make peace with life in order to be totally at peace with death. Death is liberation, but we can only obtain the feeling of peace in life.

I go even further, I go so far as to say that death is beautiful and since, as I said, it is one side of the same coin as life, life is also beautiful, if nothing else it gives you the possibility of taking it away in case it becomes ugly so there is nothing you can complain.

We must learn to see death as liberation; the secret of life is knowing when to stop.

 

[Placo]

Before I reflected that it is difficult to be at peace with life and death at the same time because we tend to see them as two opposites, that is, those who like life tend to see death negatively and vice versa but in my opinion it is possible in some way make peace with both because it is true that they are opposites but they are also somehow interconnected, if one wants to die and is tired of life he can still see life positively because if nothing else it gives him the possibility of ending it whenever he wants, life does not forces anybody to live, this thing compensates a little for the anger that some people have who are frustrated by the fact that they find themselves alive without having chosen it, there is a nice short video by Alan Watts on this very thing.