p15life 2009 July 30, Kalimát 17, 166 BE; The Memento Mori
This is a rewrite and update of an essay I wrote a while back.
Life as Passing Shadow: The Memento Mori
"What is man, that You care for him? Or the son of man, that You think of him? Man is like a breath. His days are like a shadow that passes away." — Psalms 144:3–4 (WEB)
In times past, there was a wise custom of keeping a human skull by one's desk or bedside to remind the viewer that death is imminent. This was called a Memento Mori—a standing reminder that life is temporary, that whatever you do in this world is not lasting, and that death will intervene. I do not keep a skull; instead, I collect short quotations on this theme that I have come across in my reading. Let me share some of my collection today.
The above verse from Psalms points out that life is a mere "passing shadow" compared to the sunlit highlands of reality. Plato made this concept the basis of his theory of the nature of justice. In The Republic, he told the myth of the cave. Here, prisoners are permanently chained to face a wall. Having seen only the wall during their entire lives, they mistake the reflected shadows for reality. They do not see that a fire burns behind them, and that objects moving between the fire and the wall create those shadows.
"And if they could talk to one another, don’t you think they’d suppose that the names they used applied to the things they see passing before them?"
"They’d have to."
"And what if their prison also had an echo from the wall facing them? Don’t you think they’d believe that the shadows passing in front of them were talking whenever one of the carriers passing along the wall was doing so?"
"I certainly do."
"Then the prisoners would in every way believe that the truth is nothing other than the shadows of those artifacts."
— Plato, The Republic, Book VII, 515b–c (G. M. A. Grube & C. D. C. Reeve, trs., in John M. Cooper, ed., Plato: Complete Works)
According to this parable of the sun as the Good, the only ultimate reality is what the light illumines directly. A just person, then, is the reverse of what we often think—not merely a meticulous observer of shadows on a cave wall. To be faithful to a projected image of an image is mere imitation. Justice is not the shadow of reality; it is the sun that illumines the world outside the cave. Transient shadows are all we see in this temporary existence.
The Qur’án carries this metaphor of light and shadow even further. Just as a worshipper raises her arms and lowers her head to the ground, so the sun rises and sets, causing our shadows to shorten and lengthen throughout the day. If humans do not pray, they neglect to pay tribute to a Being that even material objects pay obeisance to as they cast their shadows across the earth:
"Soon will We show them our Signs in the (furthest) regions (of the earth), and in their own souls, until it becomes manifest to them that this is the Truth. Is it not enough that thy Lord doth witness all things?"
-- Qur’án 41:53, Yusuf Ali, tr., https://sacred-texts.com/isl/yaq/yaq041.htm
For Bahá’ís, our most impressive Memento Mori is permanently enshrined in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, Bahá’u’lláh’s Most Holy Book. The divine Lawmaker addresses humanity directly, reminding us that religion itself is both cause and effect of the Memento Mori:
"Rejoice not in the things ye possess; tonight they are yours, tomorrow others will possess them. Thus warneth you He Who is the All-Knowing, the All-Informed. Say: Can ye claim that what ye own is lasting or secure? Nay! By Myself, the All-Merciful, ye cannot, if ye be of them who judge fairly. The days of your life flee away as a breath of wind, and all your pomp and glory shall be folded up as were the pomp and glory of those gone before you. Reflect, O people! What hath become of your bygone days, your lost centuries?"
-- Bahá'u'lláh, The Kitáb-i-Aqdas, Para. 40, https://www.bahai.org/r/803444151
Bahá’u’lláh also recalled a vivid earthly Memento Mori from His youth—a puppet play performed before the Sultan. This satirical piece told of a great king standing in all his power and splendour in an ornate court. On a whim, the Sultan declared war. An entire army was arrayed, complete with cannon volleys and cavalry charges. Yet, when the play concluded, the puppet master simply packed the entire cast—king, court, and army alike—away into a small wooden box. ’Abdu’l-Bahá placed great emphasis on this same theme. In a Tablet written to an early believer, He re-centered her focus on the transient nature of worldly power:
"O thou esteemed maid-servant of God! All that thou hast looked upon—even the dominion of Victoria, the Queen of England—is but an image on the water and a mirage of phantasms! That which is a reality and is eternal and everlasting is the love of God, is the knowledge of His Highness, the Forgiver, is the spread of the perspicuous religion of God, the uplifting of the Word of God, and the diffusion of the lights of the guidance of God!"
— ’Abdu’l-Bahá, Tablets of Abdu'l-Baha, Vol. 1, pp. 261–262, https://bahai-library.com/writings/abdulbaha/tab/2.html
Bahá’u’lláh, in an early doctrinal work, addresses how the uncertainty and brevity of life can lead to corruption if unexamined. This echoes the warnings of Ecclesiastes:
"Seeing there be many things that increase vanity, what is man the better? For who knoweth what is good for man in this life, all the days of his vain life which he spendeth as a shadow? for who can tell a man what shall be after him under the sun?" — Ecclesiastes 6:11–12 (KJV)
Without reflection and a devotional orientation, uncertainty about the value of our efforts prompts us to seek temporary worldly security, often at the expense of justice. As Bahá’u’lláh explains in Gems of Divine Mysteries (Jawáhiru’l-Asrár):
"But as these people failed to turn wholly unto God, and to hold fast to the hem of His all-pervading mercy at the appearance of the Daystar of Truth, they passed out from under the shadow of guidance and entered the city of error. Thus did they become corrupt and corrupt the people. Thus did they err and lead the people into error. And thus were they recorded among the oppressors in the books of heaven."
— Bahá’u’lláh, Gems of Divine Mysteries (Jawáhiru’l-Asrár), para. 55, https://www.bahai.org/r/683113547
The only way to escape the corruption of worldly presuppositions is to take your skull in hand—or whatever Memento Mori you happen to keep—and contemplate what is soon to come. Such is the counsel of ’Abdu’l-Bahá:
"This life will surely pass away like unto a fleeting shadow, and the gay trappings of this earthly existence will soon be rolled up. The cup of bitter death will be borne round, and the fire of anguish and despair will be set ablaze." — ’Abdu’l-Bahá, Fire and Light, V, https://www.bahai.org/r/539495506
Prompt for the illustration to Meta AI: This is for a blog post about the idea of life as a walking shadow, memento mori, etc. Illustrate and display this quote as impressively as you can imagine: "What is man, that You care for him? Or the son of man, that You think of him? Man is like a breath. His days are like a shadow that passes away." — Psalms 144:3–4 (WEB)
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