Reflections on Life and Death

Death indicates to us our reality. It tells us that we are moving from a situation where, in this world, we think we have control over things, to another situation, in another world, where we will have no control over anything at all. It tells us that we are moving from light to darkness, from everything to nothing. Before death, humans are in a world where they think they are the masters of their destiny. But after death, they are taken to a world where they are compelled to accept being completely subordinated to Someone Else—God. If you keep this reality in mind, your life will be totally transformed. It will make you realize, for instance, how absurd it is to trouble others, because you will have to answer for this after death, when you yourself will be under Someone Else’s control. It will make you ashamed of thinking yourself to be superior to others, because you will realize that the supposed superiority that will one day be snatched away from you is actually totally unreal. Death’s Assault Alexander (b. 356 BCE) was son of the Greek king Philip. Within ten years of ascending the throne he conquered a vast portion of the world. But what happened to him finally? He died in a palace in a town in Iraq as pathetically as a pauper dying in his hovel.