In today's relaxing, healing guided meditation we reflect on "Memento Mori"—the ancient Greek practice of reflection on mortality. It goes back to Socrates, who said that the proper practice of philosophy is “about nothing else but dying and being dead.” Plato, who Socrates mentored, taught about the purpose of philosophy in the dialogue of "Phaedon". Plato defined philosophy as a reflection on our own death. This death, of course, could be not only natural, but also the death of the Ego.
Later on the Stoic school adopted this practice, and named it "Memento Mori' in Latin, (Remberance of our imminent death). “Let us prepare our minds as if we’d come to the very end of life. Let us postpone nothing. Let us balance life’s books each day. … The one who puts the finishing touches on their life each day is never short of time.” Seneca To us moderns this sounds like an awful idea. Who wants to think about death? But what if instead of being scared and unwilling to embrace this truth we did the opposite? What if reflecting and meditating on that fact was a simple key to living life to the fullest? Or that it was the key to our freedom—as Montaigne put it, “To practice death is to practice freedom. A person who has learned how to die has unlearned how to be a slave.”
Note: Alkistis is wearing Zeus + Δione clothing.
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