Is not philosophy the practice of death?
(Socrates)
Looking at the stars always makes me dream.
Why, I ask myself, shouldn’t the shining dots of the sky
Be as accessible as the black dots on the map of France?
Just as we take the train to get to Tarascon or Rouen,
We take death to reach a star.
(Vincent van Gogh)
Why, I ask myself, shouldn’t the shining dots of the sky
Be as accessible as the black dots on the map of France?
Just as we take the train to get to Tarascon or Rouen,
We take death to reach a star.
(Vincent van Gogh)
I
If you were granted one wish in relation to death,
Would that wish be for reincarnation?
If you were granted one wish in relation to death,
Would that wish be for reincarnation?
In the
consideration of my perceived death,
Either there will
be reincarnation,
Or there will not
be reincarnation.
Simply because
there is a possibility
There might be
reincarnation,
Means there may be
a further consequence
Of there being
poverty on the Earth,
Because however
small the probability
I might be reborn
into poverty on the Earth
And in considering
the starry night,
I hope other
conscious life-forms
Are understanding
this the same as me
And acting upon
their understanding,
Because if there
were reincarnation,
It would perhaps
not be upon this Earth,
But might well be
upon another Earth
Where it were
possible for there to be another Earth,
An Earth of which
I could only hope was free from poverty,
For even if I had all the riches that I wanted,
I’d still wish
reincarnation for eternity
Onto Earths of
non-poverty, democracy and opportunity
To protect and
preserve continuity.
II
If you were granted one wish in relation to death,
Would that wish be for resurrection?
If you were granted one wish in relation to death,
Would that wish be for resurrection?
I imagine, in
resurrection I have lived for a million years,
The same people,
the same places
Fill my head and I
pine for rebirth
And not this
throbbing mind of memory,
A supposed bliss,
yet absent of opportunity
To protect and
preserve as necessity.
Oh, how a million
years ago,
I would have
wished to be
Just born again
anew
On planets behind
the stars
And to travel the
galaxies
Sensing
evolution’s infinite possibilities…
With only one
desire
And that to be
free to do as I choose,
I would need
Earths of non-poverty and democracy
Simply for
cosmological travel insurance!
But of course, I
seem mortal
And while I hope
there is no way
To send me to the
imagined hell,
I also hope for
nature to reawaken me,
Regardless of my
morality
And in strict
accordance
With my favoured
explanatory:
Because there is
incarnation,
Is there not
reincarnation
And for eternity?*
The above is an abridged version of Philosophy (The Love of Wisdom), available to preview in it entirety and purchase as a hardcover dust-jacket book here
