To Be Towards Death: Thinking On The Line Of Death

In the long process of philosophy, being alive or being dead as a major issue has never been neglected by western philosophy. From the ancient to the present, living and death confronting us have the basic orientations in the western culture that one is enjoying living and disliking death, the other is enjoying death and disliking living, and these two orientations root from the inherently deep lose in the inevitability of death. When we talk about death, we involuntarily immerse ourselves into intensive mood with speaking of life vanishing. This perplexity has not gone down but gone up sharply. Ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus once said that the death was a matter having nothing to do with us. Afterwards, enjoying living and disliking death began to spread in Europe. People paced up and down around the palace garden entrance, pursuing affection, wealth and honor on the purpose of sparing from death by glorying in living, but which could not develop what true significance and value exist in life. People are doomed to death compared with living, which is the most down to earth and close to being truth discovered by man in tranquil and serene field. Being the certain destination of all life voyages, death draws on every life in a distant or near course, with this as a prerequisite, Amoeba's undying doctrine will end up like falling dust. Life finitude has deeply taken root in everyone's memory depths and the possibilities to breaking through such finitude crumble to dust because of the inevitability of death, and then opposite dualism between living and death lasts as a great and inscrutable mystery. The two in a contradiction becomes the historical topic which man keeps pondering.The beings left and growing around field road develop to breed the world. Man naturally obtains residence. He always feels the stillness and dignity of thinking sent forth from the ground, for instance, being indistinct fear in starlight, death that all return to serenity. Dark green jungle is occasionally sparkled with a light green glade; at this moment you will feel the ground is so generous to offer abundantly, and feel the always giving ground is so intimate and attractive to you. The thinking, that is conceived by the ground and also runs deep in it, that has a deep affection with life, will make you feel it is more deep and attractive than noises in the ostentatious metropolis. Heidegger as a thinker, being born of Si and developing with Si, and he marches his whole life along the path in the dark forest.Heidegger can be regarded as an idol in today's academic fields. His thinking on death is still fascinating and always summons conscientious people to give audience to what death means in our life. To understand Heidegger's thinking on death, we must start with Dasein. Because in his brilliant exposition he explains that man exist in approaching death existence. Heidegger believes death is in a more essential sense compared with living, Philosophy issue about life can be explained clearly only when setting death as the basic background. Taking Dasein as the indispensable premise, Heidegger makes a comprehensive view that death experiences four stages of philosophy thinking in western philosophy history, based on this he attempts to construct the death consciousness in active side. Confronted with Sorge and Angst, individual should have no worries and cares, and have freedom to design his own existence ways. Actually Sorge means fearing death. Whatever ways Dasein evade, ascending to the sky and dropping into hell,he finally cannot escape from limitation of the life----the Death. The mostinherent, personal, unsurpassable, uncertain possibility of man's existence is death, because death existed when person was born, so long as Dasein is "alive", he have to carry death. Death is possible to exist anytime; no one can substitute and deprive other one's death. Directly facing death should be a bridge by which Dasein transits from unnatural state to natural state. Enduring death, experiencing death, going ahead into death, as well as bravely undertaking the responsibility and freedom mean the true nature of man's existence. In a present day of "money" and "authority" becoming totemic worship and measure of value, the individual being should be called up by conscience to deeply think about his-own existence, and keep a last spiritual homestead in his ephemeral living years. Death urges man to surpass life's boundary, finding the value inclining to the infinity, only "directly facing death", can man shake off the fear to death, can man pursue the significance of life, can man live more significantly. Although there exists unavoidable defect in Heidegger's death discourse, what is that he can not solve the death matter once and for all, which in fact impossibly exists. When hesitation vanishing gradually in the dim light of night with the sound of clock striking, each person is writing his-own life heartily, devoting the whole life into the exploration of what subjectivity actually exists in death and life, so as to discover a way without adhering to any outside force leading to enlighteningly spirit liberation. Turning back to the past suddenly, death is that you overlook the life standing in the end point of life. Understanding death means understanding life.