Do read the first post from this series, before reading this one.
Excerpts from the book are in image form, and my insights are in bold, below them.
In this chapter, the author stresses upon the importance of thinking about death, so as to choose better values, which in turn enables one to lead a more fulfilling life.
During 2017 and 2018, my dad was admitted to the hospital many times, before he succumbed to his illness in October, 2018. I have always felt uncomfortable in hospitals, as I shiver whenever I see anyone in pain, and I remember standing in the hospital lobby, after admitting him one of the times, wondering what the point of life was, if all of us are going to die one day. The thought of death was utterly depressing, and at the time I would never have considered it as motivation to live a better life.
However, after reading about it in a few other books as well, I do agree that it's important to be comfortable thinking about death as it is inevitable. (Last year, I had written briefly about death, in a post titled - The Importance of Saying 'No'.)
Something beyond our selves :
The author writes about three important concepts from Ernest Becker's book 'The Denial of Death' :
1) Death terror - A deep existential anxiety that underlies everything we think or do.
2) Immortality projects - Projects that allow our conceptual self to live on way past the point of our physical death. All the meaning in our life is shaped by this innate desire to never truly die.
3) The bitter antidote - People's immortality projects were actually the problem, not the solution. Rather than attempting to implement, often through lethal force, their conceptual self across the world, people should question their conceptual self and become more comfortable with the reality of their own death.
The sunny side of death :
And that brings us to the end of this book. I hope you enjoyed reading the summaries.
As I have been busy preparing for an upcoming examination, I haven't been able to dedicate much time to writing, and that's the main reason why it took me 7 months to write 9 summary posts.
I have re-read the book nearly 4 times during these 7 months, and as a consequence, I have done a lot of introspection, and I can definitely feel that my thinking has matured even more. (I personally believe that it is very important to re-read books which have changed your life, and it is even more important to implement the concepts mentioned in those books. You can read all the self-help books in the world, but if you don't consciously implement their concepts in your life, you won't benefit from them at all.)
I hope you benefit from the book and my summary posts, as much as I have. Happy reading!
Note : For a more detailed understanding of the excerpts, do read the book. It’s a brilliant eye-opener!
You can check out Manson’s blog, here.
Thank you for reading! Stay blessed!
© TheKindTempest