Art of dying: imagery vs practice

Metaphors To Die By (Part #6)

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Imagery: There is an extensive literature offering depictions of death as theology, as fiction, as poetry, or as visual images.. Given the nature of these media, these are necessarily all focused on death itself -- and especially from an external perspective -- and not on the dying process as experienced subjectively. The focus may extend into imaginative representation of the afterlife -- as it might be experienced as an externality.Citing the cognitive scientist Mark Turner (Death is the Mother of Beauty, 1987), George Lakoff notes with respect to metaphors of death:

In studying a wide variety of poems about death in English, we found that, in poem after poem, death was personified in a relatively small number of ways: drivers, coachmen, footmen; reapers, devourers and destroyers; or opponents in a struggle or game (say, a knight or a chess opponent). The question we asked was: Why these? Why isn't death personified as a teacher or a carpenter or an icecream salesman?....

The preservation of generic-level structure explained why death is not metaphorized in terms of teaching, or filling the bathtub, or sitting on the sofa. They simply do not have the same causal and overall event structure, that is, they do not share 'generic-level structure" (The Contemporary Theory of Metaphor, 1993).

As art, such representation may take dramatic form. It is readily recognized that the theme is central (if not a requisite) to movie and TV drama, to news presentations of conflicts, as well as to (online) video games. Considerable efforts may be made to represent the dying process as an observable and to convey some sense of the psychology of the process through the expressions of the person dying -- typically in terms of suffering experienced. The quest for detail may extend perversely to the reality depicted in "snuff movies". Curiously enthusiasm does not extend to the slaughter of animals or to their experience in laboratory experimentation.

In general, the experience of the dying is designed out. This necessarily applies to an even greater degree to the case of dying groups, cultures or civilizations.

Practice: As noted above with respect to "Books of the Dead", religions tend to offer a particular understanding of death -- and of appropriate practices in anticipation of that finality. Examples include:

• Kenneth Kramer. The Sacred Art of Dying: how world religions understand death. Paulist Press, 1988 [extracts]
• Donald F. Duclow. Dying Well: The Ars Moriendi and the Dormition of the Virgin. In: Edelgard E. DuBruck and Barbara Gusick (Eds.), Death and Dying in the Middle Ages. Peter Lang, 1999. [text]
• John Shinners (Ed.) The Art of Dying Well, in Medieval Popular Religion, 1000-1500: a reader. 1997:
• Jean-Yves Leloup and Marie de Hennezel. L'Art de Mourier: traditions religieuses et spiritualité humaniste face à la mort, 1997
• dying well
• Encyclopedia of Death and Dying

These are readily perceived as boring or irrelevant to the modern mindset. This is possibly because of the impoverishment of their metaphors in comparison with familiarity with current multimedia supports for the imagination. A contrasting approach is that of Timothy Leary, Ralph Metzner, and Richard Alpert The Psychedelic Experience: a manual based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead, 2008).

The process has been addressed by Peter Fenwick and Elizabeth Fenwick (The Art of Dying, 2008) understood as a contemporary version of the medieval Ars Moriendi -- a manual on how to achieve a good death. This argues for the need to ace up to death, and embrace it as a significant and sacred part of life. The book reviews how other cultures have dealt with death and the dying process and compares this with phenomena reported through recent scientific research. It also describes the experiences of health care workers who are involved with end of life issues who feel that they need a better understanding of the dying process, and more training in how to help their patients die well by overcoming the common barriers to a good death, such as unfinished business and unresolved emotions of guilt or hate.

Dialogue with death: This is a theme explored by a range of authors:

• Eknath Easwaran (Dialogue with Death: a journey through consciousness, 1993)
• Arthur Koestler (Dialogue with Death, 1942)
• Kenneth Kramer (Beginning: Dialogue with Death, In: The Sacred Art of Dying: how world religions understand death, 1988, pp. 5-10)
• James Hillman and Sonu Shamdasani (Lament of the Dead: psychology after Jung's Red Book, 2013) -- notably concerned with ensured that the lessons of the dead are heard
• Mark S. Umbreit, Betty Vos, Robert B. Coates, and Katherine A. Brown (Facilitated Dialogue on Death Row: family members of murder victims and inmates share their experiences. In, James R. Acker and David R. Karp (Eds.), Wounds that Do Not Bind: Victim-Based Perspectives on the Death Penalty, 2006, pp. 349-375).

As argued by Ian Kinnes (Dialogues with Death, 1981):

Food, reproduction and death are the common factors of humanity, and the greatest of these is death. Human societies are moulded by their dialogies with death: frameworks, by which individuals and communities establish their own world-picture, are stretched and then defined by the need to comprehend and incorporate mortality.

Richard Freadman (Threads of Life: Autobiography and the Will, 2001) cites with admiration, Koestler's articulation of his own experience in a situation faced with imminent death during the Spanish civil war:

... that dream-like feeling of having one's consciousness split in two, so that with one half ot it one observes oneself with comparative coolness and aloofness, as though observing a stranger. The consciousness sees to it that its complete annihilation is never experienced. It does not divulge the secret of its existence and its decay. No one is allowed to look into the darkness with his eyes open; he is blindfolded beforehand (Dialogue with Death, p. 117)

Potentially of greater relevance to this argument is the dialogue with groups and cultures which are in process of dying -- as has been undertaken with speakers of endangered lanaguages. The approach could be extended to the consequences of corporate downsizing and permanent layoffs.

Death contemplation: Such contemplation has been widely recommended in a number of traditions and as a part of spiritual practice.

• Don Kuiken and Gregory Madison. The Effects of Death Contemplation on Meaning and Purpose in Life. Omega: Journal of Death and Dying, 18, 1987-88, 2, pp. 103-112)
• Ayya Mie Vimala. Crossing the Realm of Death: contemplation of death in Buddhist meditation, literature and living experience. AuthorHouse, 2008
• V.F. Gunaratna. Buddhist Reflections on Death. Kandy, Buddhist Publication Society, 2007 [text]

For R. Raj Singh (Death, Contemplation and Schopenhauer, 2007) the true vocation of the "authentic" philosophical life:

... death is not only a theme but the theme of philosophy, and . . . the very impetus to philosophize issues from a reflection on death" (p. 10). The classics of ancient and modern philosophy, in both Western and Asian civilizations, attest to the vocation of philosophy as "death contemplation." Death is seen as the inspiration of the search for wisdom in Socrates, who characterizes philosophy as "rehearsal for death (thanatoi meletos)" (pp. 1-4); in Plotinus, who extols "the attempt to free one's soul from *matters bodily'" (pp. 4-8); in Nachiketas, who seeks knowledge of the soul from the god of death in the Kat.ha Upanis.ad (pp. 13-22); in the bhakti poet Kabir, who praises fearlessness of death

It is less clear how this extends into the experience of dying -- potentially informing it in ways that are subtle and less evident in conventionak discourse.

James Sexton comments on an early Greek philosopher as follows:.

In his The Encheiridion or "Handbook", stoic philosopher Epictetus speaks repeatedly of the importance of keeping death and dying in one's consciousness. Being aware of the reality of death is emphasized by Epictetus, who suggests that the individual, Let death and exile and everything that is terrible appear before your eyes every day, especially death, as doing so will prevent anything contemptible in your thoughts, as well as craving anything excessively. (p.16) The philosopher does not, however, reserve his discourse only for the matter of when death is contemplated, but also offers advice on how such contemplation should take place. (The Semantics of Death and Dying: metaphor and mortality, A Review of General Semantics, 54, 1997, 3, pp. 333-345)

As a psychotherapist, Thomas Moore argues the case for such reflections, if only in the title of his remarks -- Dwelling on Death Isn't Neurotic; It's Profoundly Healthy (Liguorian, February 2000). This may be considered especially true given the extent to which people are exposed to death, through the experience of relatives, through media representations, and through reports on the extraordinary range of deaths from natural disasters, massacres, wars, disease and starvation.. The latter are more likely to increase, rather than decrease, given the predicted shortages of the near future. If only in that respect, it is appropriate to reflect on the experience of death as stripped of all dignity in the eyes of others by acts beyond one's own conscious control.

In arguing for remembrance of death, the Orthodox Christian Information Centre (We Should Remember Death) argues:

The Christian soul that lives with a profound hope of life beyond the grave and the sweet anticipation of the most desirable Paradise, attempts to maintain a vivid memory of death. The Wisdom of Sirach says: In all you do, remember the end of your life, and then you will never sin.... The Christian knows that he will live after death and, therefore, should constantly be aware of his present mortality, keeping before him his exodus from the present world, the Second Coming, the future judgment and his entry into endless eternity. For this reason St. Gregory the Theologian often repeats the saying of Plato which suggests that the present life ought to be a meditation upon death. He advised his friend Philagrios to live instead of the present the future and to make this life a meditation and practice of death. To the priest Photios he wrote: Our cares and our attention are concentrated on one thing only our departure from this world. And for this departure we prepare ourselves and gather our baggage as prudent travelers would do. Also, St. Athanasios advises in his treatise On Virginity: Recall your exodus every hour; keep death before your eyes on a daily basis. Remember before whom you must appear. St. John of Sinai advises: Let the memory of death sleep and awake with you.

Contrasting representations of exclusion and inclusion of dying as an experience
Dying as a "ghost in the machine"	Dying-centered experience

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