Memento Mori

“You could leave life right now. Let that determine what you do and say and think.”  – Marcus Aurelius.

A disclaimer first; this post will probably be bit uncomfortable, but “Memento Mori” (Latin for ‘remember that you [have to] die‘) is one of the fascinating line of thoughts in the Stoic philosophy. It tells us to remember death everyday & make the most of our life right now. There are several ways to comprehend this thought.

Stay Humble & Kind: The origin of this thought comes from Rome, where the roman general would be paraded with pomp and glory after victory. Behind him, there was a man who would continuously remind the general that he was still human, thus keeping him grounded. They say people don’t remember by who you are and what your status was, they remember how you treated them. So, staying humble and being kind to everyone, including the self is the most important thing.

Make the most of today: Stoics highlight on the inevitable death in order to prioritize what we do in life. Engaging in something we despise and not good for the mind & body is soul crushing, though it has financial benefits. We must do everything in our capacity to avoid doing it; at least try to find alternatives. Do something you relish, spend time with people you enjoy, think positive, and be happy. Time on earth is limited. Sadhguru, in one of his motivational videos mentioned that one should be thankful every morning to be alive; a sense of gratitude that we have another day of live and to make the most of today.

Keep a better balance in life: There is no lack of death-bed stories where the person on the death bed regrets on several aspects. Regret on not spending time with family and friends, not prioritizing health, not trying to be a kinder and better human being, etc. The person maybe hugely successful in their chosen domain of expertise, but as long as there is no balance between all spheres of life, there will always be a strange void within. Stories of people pursuing wealth & career at the expense of family and friends and ending up with regrets are aplenty.

Make the right choice in life: Robert Greene in his fantastic book “33 Strategies of War” writes in one of the chapters about “The Death ground strategy“, on how people could achieve greater success when they have their back to the wall, nowhere to go, nowhere to hide. The only way is to move forward. He writes “Put yourself in situations where you have too much at stake to waste time or resources – if you cannot afford to lose, you won’t. Place yourself on death ground, where your back is against the wall, and you have to fight like hell to get out alive“.

Live life in “tourist” mode: As a tourist, we try to pack in all that we can do and see in the places we visit. We want to experience the place to the best and make the most of the days we spend there. The same zeal goes missing once we are back in the comforts of our home. As they say, tourists know more about the city than the locals. When we moved to China, we travelled to many places around, to the point that many of my Chinese colleagues told I had seen more places in China than them. I then realized that I didn’t have the same passion when we were living in India. As a tourist, we know our days at a given place is “limited” and want to make the best of those days. We should probably employ the same attitude in life all the time.

Pink Floyd, one of the most popular rock bands epitomized this thought in their brilliant song “Time” in the album “The Dark side of the moon“, beautifully penned by the legend Roger Waters, I copy below the relevant excerpts from that:

And you run, and you run to catch up with the sun but it's sinking
Racing around to come up behind you again
The sun is the same in a relative way but you're older
Shorter of breath and one day closer to death

There was this WhatsApp forward that summarizes this topic very well: “It’s wrong to say that we have only one life. There is only one death! We get life every day, we just need to know how to live“. Remember that there is death, that our days are numbered here and truly “live” every day. And that’s what Memento Mori tells us.