Momento Mori
Amor Fati
“Never forget that you must die; that death will come sooner than you expect... God has written the letters of death upon your hands. In the inside of your hands you will see the letters M.M. It means ‘Memento Mori’ - remember you must die.”
Memento Mori is a Latin phrase meaning 'remember you must die. The basic idea of the philosophy is that if people remember their inescapable deaths, they will lead more sober lives, live in the present, and take advantage of opportunities rather than postpone them 'till "tomorrow."
Memento Mori is the ancient method of reflection on our mortality that goes back to Socrates, who said that the proper practice of philosophy is "about nothing else but dying and being dead."
Amor Fati is a Latin phrase meaning 'love your fate.' Ergo, Momento Mori, Amor Fati is the perfect gift for Stoic philosophers that convey to live life to the fullest by contemplating death and loving your fate.
One could debate that Immanuel Kant's theory can also resonate because if one's intent is pure, so are their actions as one constantly chooses to live a life of purity and love regardless of the Stoic analogy of incorrigibility perceptual experience.
MY TRUTH
Let it be known that all I perceive and act upon is profoundly correlated to my three life philosophies:
Memento Mori
Carpe Diem
Amor Fati
I am entirely attuned with the first two a hundred percent, and we will get into that a bit later. I am invariably working on the last, third, as I thoroughly gather the three come as a package deal, and you cannot entirely grasp the true purpose of life without loving your fate. Only when you accept who you are, accept your fate, and trust it; then can you appreciate your days to their potential and finally comprehend that life's mission is to bring peace, freedom, and above all, love to the entire world. Whether death comes at eighteen or eighty, life seems to be brief and short. Remembering your mortality will be your strength and inspiration in doing more good in this short-term world.
Preceding back to memento mori, I was but a young, naive ten-year-old when my mother was destined to leave in the year 1989. This was at a time where there was little existence or accessibility to technology for children. Ergo not much to create memories or distract me during the trauma. I cannot recall if it was the shock of losing my mother, the sudden void hormonal transition to adolescent years, or the generational parental obliviousness of how to attend a child after the death of a parent; either way, my brain since then blocked ten years of memories with my mother; with nothing to show for it only one or two tangible photos and a handful of memories. The rest appears regressed into a brain blockage. So how does a young child cope with a tragic loss? Death. Little did I know that I was using Momento Mori and Carpe Diem as a way of living from a ten-year-old and ongoing. I began to love everyone immensely, and every moment held that frightening concept; could this be my last moment with this individual, or what if I never had this moment again? In my mind and heart, I would freeze the moment in time and take still pictures of the view, perception, and the emotion felt. I would then lock it up in a treasure box in my conscience.
And thirty-three years following, I am nevertheless doing the same. Minus the fear of course. I am continuously making every moment a celebration and attempting to love all that enter my life, whether it is a family, friend, colleague, strangers, and believe it or not, even a foe at times. However, the caveat here is to be mindful of this philosophy because although your conscience is at the heightened attention of mortality, not many are. Ergo their lack of reciprocity or acknowledgment of your love can recoil. The only way out of this is to accept the disclaimer; 'do all that you do, regardless for who it is for, without any expectation and do it for the sake of divine wisdom.' This way, you cannot and will not be hurt.
Know that many cannot adequately understand the death of a loved one without experiencing it; ergo, they do not endure mortality in mind to live every day every second as the best gift given to them. Which induces earthly desires of higher importance. We will further dig into the way of life of those that provide more reputation to worldly desires over mortality a bit later.
So yes, I am constantly working on Amor Fati to love my fate. I started this practice in the year 2016 after securing a significant decision to seek bereavement therapy. I must acknowledge; it was harrowing and yet so liberating. It was as if I had unintentionally imprisoned myself for twenty-six years. Although I was afraid of death and made every moment special, I never actually accepted my fate of being a daughter without a mother.
And that's when I realized in hindsight, and as shocking as it sounds, losing my mother was both the worst and the best thing that ever happened to me. It shifted me into who I am today. I needed the pain to amply love for people, life and be grateful for the smallest of moments. After bereavement, I grew faster than ever mentally. I shed many tears in those twenty-six years I could create another ocean in the world. Yet after bereavement, not a tear shed. Sometimes I try, trust me, I do, very hard. But I just cannot. I want to presume it is because I fully understand that I accepted my fate and my mother's fate. I know she still loves me. I know I am stronger and wiser for it. Hence my blogs;)
I realized the most excellent quality I hold was not only because my mother was such a loving soul, yet also because she left me with the most significant philosophy; Momento Mori. I tuned into this reality within minutes of her funeral. It has by far been the one force that constantly brings about the stallion in me regardless of my tribulations.
I urge you to remember your death and the death of others. For it would completely alter your thought process, your goals, how you see and treat people and what you feel is success in this world.
Rich or Poor, Everyone Dies
Memento Mori additionally reminds one of the worthlessness of earthly possessions and titles at death. Too often, people get caught up in worldly desires. While it is nice to possess nice things and titles, we must identify that it is temporary. There is no debate here. Nothing advances with your soul except what it came with; NOTHING. Ergo why gloat and boast about your materialistic elements or a position you hold. You are not either of those; you are not your belongings, and you are most definitely not your job title. It would be best if you were you. What good are worldly items if you are insensitive, rude, arrogant, oblivious to etiquette? What good is your earthly title if you're an 'ass' to others?
We all have nice things, some more than others. Who cares? Those that use what they possess as a rank of who they are; are far lower in the scale of a meaningful life. This by no means implies you cannot work hard and be ambitious. Of course, you can, and that is an eminent domain of lifestyle, but chasing temporary things as a fulfillment of status is futile. On the contrary, those who pursue love, innocence, purity, pleasurable moments, wisdom, self-evolution, humility, and aspire to battle for those who cannot speak up for themselves are genuinely successful in interpersonal growth.
Success, in my eyes, is not what you are and what you own. It is how you evolve, correct your mistakes, learn from life's happenings, make others feel important and loved. Things come and go. People go. Are you going to prioritize your shit over a soul?
Momento Mori serves a moralizing purpose for those that internalize it.. Thoughts of death remind such people of the emptiness and transience of earthly pleasures, luxuries, and achievements, which will be insignificant in the afterlife.
Maybe it is because I lost a mother, perhaps because wisdom came to me sooner, perhaps it is pure destiny, yet for me, life is not about being rich; it is about being happy. Whether it's a lollipop, jumping on my bed, or just laying in bed with a loved one. I want to be satisfied. While I get this is vague and may seem unattainable, I urge you to reprioritize your aspirations, for if you had an hour left, would you be shopping for a fancy house or car, or would you be at a meeting or your job? Or would you be with your loved ones and hold them tight? Let that sink in. I did thirty-three years ago and am wiser for it. I find status suckers and arrogant people extremely repulsive. On the other hand some of my friends are esteemed millionaires, yet you would never see them speak in that manner, or talk about themselves gloating about details of what they have or what they did. In fact, when they meet me and my family they always ask about our needs and desires, they make us feel so special. That my dearest readers is ‘true living’, selfless; regardless what one does for a living or how much they own; you love them for none other than the pure existence of their soul. Ambition is good, so long as it comes with humility, not arrogance.
My radar for such people is strong. They will deny it, justify it, come up with a lengthy explanation or story, only they are fooling themselves in their conscience. They know they're synchronized with their subconscious for world greed. I am not sure I can help correct anyone. However, I consider it my full adamant responsibility to protect my youthful generation from small-minded influence. These people can hide who they are from others, but cannot hide who they are from their own reflection. Alas it may take the loss of a loved one for them to learn to take out more time for people who have nothing but love for them. And to be honest, for some even a death isn’t enough. It’s just who they are. They won’t change. Where there is no empathy, there cannot exist Momento Mori.
“It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste much of it. Life is long enough, and it has been given in sufficiently generous measure to allow the accomplishments of the very greatest things if the whole of it is invested.”
DESTROY procrastination
Attaining the good life starts with the destruction of procrastination. Assessing your daily productivity doesn't seem monumental; however, an accumulation of your daily lives turning into weeks, months, and years, you attain a better and precise vision of your focus towards your priorities and goals. Are you investing enough time in what you heed is essential? Are you twice as convinced that what you thought was important still is? Are you consuming your days wasting it away thinking, 'tomorrow'? Is 'tomorrow' your body's natural way of lingering in safe repetition and no goal accomplished? Are you fooling yourself? Do you want to look back at Twenty-Nine-Thousand-Two-Hundred-Ten days of Boxes as 'tomorrow'?
If you require a better vision to attain your goal, I suggest you print out a chart and check your boxes with productivity and daily gratitude. Start by assessing your weeks, months, and years then. Are they now more attuned to your aspiring accomplishments? The mind seems to get bombarded with daily tasks or sometimes 'tomorrow.' Firstly, tomorrow isn't guaranteed, and more importantly, fueling your desires will only aid in firing continuously onwards because seeing is believing.
So stop reading and create your chart and remember the spoken words of a wise man, 'Discipline is choosing between what you want now and what you want most.' - Abraham Lincoln.
Loving My Life as I Remember Mortality,
