Stoic Guide To Accepting Death And Impermanence

The Stoic philosopher provides a profound thought experiement to help us let go of the attachments we pick up on the journey of life. Ultimately we will have to let go of everything in our life because things are transient. The question is, how can we do this?

Transcript

You can never live without the promise of death,

And you can never own something without the promise of loss.

So if we know this,

How can we reduce unnecessary suffering?

The first thing is to recognize impermanence.

Imagine that you are traveling home on an airplane and stop halfway for a connecting flight.

While you are waiting for your next flight at the airport,

You may go and eat a nice meal or peruse the perfume shops.

We've all done this.

It can be fun to explore airports.

But you must not forget about your next flight.

You have to keep looking at the airport screens to know what gate to go to and when.

Sometimes you don't find out till the last minute.

When your flight is called,

You have to stop whatever you are doing and head to the right gate.

You know this,

You accept this.

This is part of the process of traveling.

But if you don't do this,

If you decide that you really want to keep buying things in the airport,

You may be stranded in the wrong country until you eventually get deported.

Why would I have you think about this?

Well,

This is a good analogy for life.

Life itself is a journey.

We are born,

We explore and we die.

When we are in the connecting airport waiting for our next trip,

Instead of getting a nice meal and picking up some perfume,

We maybe pick up a wife and a child.

Maybe we get a nice house.

This is great.

We should definitely enjoy this.

But when the next flight comes,

We must be prepared to leave them behind.

This is part of the process.

A natural process.

And ideally,

We should learn to become okay with it.

To go back to the analogy of walking around the airport waiting for our next flight,

If we are getting older,

If we are in the airport for a long time,

We have a long layover,

We might wander a bit too far.

We might buy too many things in life.

We might get married.

We might have children.

We might get a house.

We might get a good career.

We might have grandchildren.

And then,

When death summons us back to our next flight,

We resist it.

We have become too comfortable in this airport.

And so the takeaway here is that it is possible to truly enjoy your life to the full.

To enjoy all of the things that life brings you.

All of the deep intimate connections and material possessions.

While also recognizing that part of the deal you are agreeing to is to one day let them go when the time comes.

By doing this and thinking about this regularly,

You will be able to let them go with more ease and appreciate them while they're here.

Reviews

Excellent reminder🙏🏾

Thank you..

Brilliant and totally agree with the comparison, acceptance and gratitude will sort you out on your journey through life

Leaving on a jet plane! My sis just caught that flight! Thank you for this different perspective of letting go of a loved one!

So true. Important to talk about this subject.

I thought these few words offered a great deal. Thank you for the wise words on the topic of death and impermanence. Excellent.

Good analogy!

Excellent 🕊️

Thank you, that's really helpful for dealing with loss 💜

Good analogy. Helps me realize t need to be more mindful and enjoy whats good and special/pleasurable on every situation. No point in resisting death as it's part of the agreement.

Deep thoughts about the process of life that recognizes death at the end. Excellent.

thank you for making this short talk. I like the airport analogy

I like this analogy.
Death is part of the circle of life ~ I am prepared to let go but do not fear it.

Very grounding; thank you!