關于死亡這件事
death
哈佛的一個教授開了一門課，名稱雷人：死亡課。
觀眾爆棚，人氣超高。人們對死亡這件事，其實還是挺在意的。不能不在意，人的生命只有一次。
先看看我們古代的哲人孔子如何看待生死。
《論語·先進第十一》記載：季路問事鬼神。
子曰：“未能事人，焉能事鬼?！痹唬骸案覇査馈！痹唬骸拔粗?，焉知死？”
（季路問如何侍奉鬼神?？鬃诱f：“還未能侍奉人，怎么來侍奉鬼神呢？”季路又問：“我能問問關于死的事嗎？”孔子回答說：“還未能知曉生，如何來知曉死呢？）
【“When Ji Lu asked about serving gods, Confucius responded: “How can you serve gods before you can serve men?”Ji Lu continued to ask: “May I ask about death？”“How can you know about death before you have known about life?”was his reply.”】
儒家沒有超越生死的哲學觀念，這是一個典型的事例。
這種觀念影響了中國一代又一代的文人學士。司馬遷受了宮刑之后，忍辱活在世上，因為儒家要現(xiàn)世擔當：
“人固有一死，或重于泰山，或輕于鴻毛，用之所趨異也。太上不辱先，其次不辱身，其次不辱理色，其次不辱辭令，其次詘屈體受辱；其次易服受辱，其次關木索，被菙楚受辱，其次剔毛發(fā)，嬰金鐵受辱，其次毀肌膚，斷肢體受辱，最下腐刑極矣?！?/p>
要了解生死，戛戛乎難哉！
惠施與莊周談論生死，莊周說道：
“夢覺之后還是夢，歸來故鄉(xiāng)無鄉(xiāng)情。何者為迷？何者為悟？”
“人世萬事皆是夢，故鄉(xiāng)只在黃土垅。生便是迷，死便是悟！”
死了也就悟了？
死生實是一貫，猶如晝夜交替，春秋往復。若能參透此理，便能悟出何者為迷，何者為悟。這是莊子的回答。
有點“道可道非常道”的意思，有點“玄而又玄眾妙之門”的深奧。
莊子的妻子顏玉去世，莊子鼓盆而歌：
吁嗟吾妻
已歸天真
吁嗟莊周
猶然為人
惠施不解，莊子答曰：人本來沒有生命，人在來到這個世界上之前，是什么樣子，誰也不知道。人在最初的時候，不僅沒有生命，而且沒有形體；不僅沒有形體，而且沒有神氣。在恍惚之間，產(chǎn)生了混沌之氣，氣的運行凝聚成人體，形體在氣的鼓蕩產(chǎn)生了生命老子云：萬物蕓蕓，各復歸其根。這個根，就是混沌之氣。人的生命和形體來源于混沌之氣，到了一定時候，就要回到混沌之氣中去。
莊子是悟透 ，是悟透了生死的人，臨死前要求弟子不舉行任何葬禮，也不要棺槨。他是以天地為棺槨，以日月為葬壁，以星辰為珠寶，以天地萬物為齋物，想讓自己的軀體早日融化于自然。
弟子藺且流淚說：先生，將您扔在山上，我害怕鳥雀吃您的肉??！
莊子說：那你把我埋在地下，就不怕螻蟻吃我的肉嗎？你這分明是將我的肉從鳥雀口中奪過來，送給螻蟻嘛！
夜里，莊子不辭而別，沒有人知道他什么時候死的，也沒有人知道他死于何地。
無獨有偶，英國大詩人Pope的名詩 On Solitude里寫道：
Thus let me live, unseen, unknown;
Thus unlamented let me die;
Steal from the world, and not a stone
Tell where I lie.
也是“大塊載我以形，勞我以生，佚我以老，息我以死”的境界，冥冥中中國古代的大哲莊子與英國的大詩人Pope取得了精神上的默契與相通。
但凡能夠平靜地接受死亡的人，都是在精神上取得了超級自由的人。
蘇格拉底被判死刑，面對死亡，他談笑自如，坦然接受，拒絕用金錢贖罪，也拒絕逃跑，他要用自己的死亡活出自己的哲學原則與生命尊嚴。面對宣判他死亡的法官以及他的學生和朋友，他慷慨陳詞：
let us reflect in another way, and we shall see that there is great reason to hope that death is a good, for one of two things: either death is a state of nothingness and utter unconsciousness, or, as men say, there is a change and migration of the soul from this world to another. Now if you suppose that there is no consciousness, but a sleep like the sleep of him who is undisturbed even by the sight of dreams, death will be an unspeakable gain. For if a person were to select the night in which his sleep was undisturbed even by dreams, and were to compare with this the other days and nights of his life, and then were to tell us how many days and nights he had passed in the course of his life better and more pleasantly than this one, I think that any man, I will not say a private man, but even the great king, will not find many such days or nights, when compared with the others.
Now if death is like this, I say that to die is gain; for eternity is then only a single night. But if death is the journey to another place, and there, as men say, all the dead are, what good, O my friends and judges, can be greater than this? If indeed when the pilgrim arrives in the world below, he is delivered from the professors of justice in this world, and finds the true judges who are said to give judgment there, Minos and Rhadamanthus and Aeacus and Triptolemus, and other sons of God who were righteous in their own life, that pilgrimage will be worth making. What would not a man give if he might converse with Orpheus and Musaeus and Hesiod and Homer? Nay, if this be true, let me die again and again. I, too, shall have a wonderful interest in a place where I can converse with Palamedes, and Ajax the son of Telamon, and other heroes of old, who have suffered death through an unjust judgment; and there will be no small pleasure, as I think, in comparing my own sufferings with theirs. Above all, I shall be able to continue my search into true and false knowledge; as in this world, so also in that; I shall find out who is wise, and who pretends to be wise, and is not. What would not a man give, O judges, to be able to examine the leader of the great Trojan expedition; or Odysseus or Sisyphus, or numberless others, men and women too! What infinite delight would there be in conversing with them and asking them questions! For in that world they do not put a man to death for this; certainly not. For besides being happier in that world than in this, they will be immortal, if what is said is true.
Wherefore, O judges, be of good cheer about death, and know this of a truth - that no evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after death. He and his are not neglected by the gods; nor has my own approaching end happened by mere chance. But I see clearly that to die and be released was better for me; and therefore the oracle gave no sign. For which reason also, I am not angry with my accusers, or my condemners; they have done me no harm, although neither of them meant to do me any good; and for this I may gently blame them.
Still I have a favor to ask of them. When my sons are grown up, I would ask you, O my friends, to punish them; and I would have you trouble them, as I have troubled you, if they seem to care about riches, or anything, more than about virtue; or if they pretend to be something when they are really nothing, - then reprove them, as I have reproved you, for not caring about that for which they ought to care, and thinking that they are something when they are really nothing.
And if you do this, I and my sons will have received justice at your hands. The hour of departure has arrived, and we go our ways - I to die, and you to live. Which is better God only knows.
【讓我們來換一種方式來思考，保證很有理由相信死亡是一件好事；因為以下幾點原因——死亡或者是一種虛無和完全無意識狀態(tài)，或者如人們所說，是靈魂從這個世界到另一個世界的變化和遷移。既然你們認為死后沒有意識，而是一種睡眠，一種甚至不被夢所打攪的睡眠，那么死亡真是一種難以言表的獲益。因為假如一個人要挑選一個夜晚，這一晚他的睡眠甚至不被睡夢所打擾，再把他生活中的日日夜夜與之相比較，然后告訴我們他生活中的多少日日夜夜比這一夜過得更好更快樂，我相信任何人，不僅是普通人，也包括偉大的國王，都會認為這樣的日子為數(shù)不多。既然死亡是這么一種本性，我保證死是一種收益；因為來世只是一夜。
假如死亡是到另一地方旅行，正如人們說的所有死人都住在那里，我的朋友們和法官先生們，還有什么比這更美好的事情？假如真的這個朝圣者來到下面的陰間游歷，他是被這個世界的法官打發(fā)來的，并在那里遇到了真正的法官，像邁諾、拉達門塞斯、阿克斯、特立普托里瑪斯，以及一生公正的諸神的兒子，據(jù)說他們在那里進行審判，這趟朝圣切實值得。如果能夠與俄爾普斯、繆薩尤斯、赫西阿德、荷馬交流思想，有什么不可舍棄的呢？如果死后真是這樣，我愿意一次次地去死。我本人非常愿意能夠見到帕拉默底斯、蒂拉蒙的兒子埃杰克斯和受冤案而死的古代英雄們，與他們交流思想。我認為，與他們的遭遇相比，我所受的痛苦可以算得上快樂了。尤其是，我可以像在這個世界一樣，在另一個世界繼續(xù)進行真?zhèn)沃R的研究；并且我將分清誰真有智慧，誰假裝有智慧，以及誰缺乏智慧。啊，法官們，如果能夠得到考察遠征特洛伊的領袖們，或者奧德修斯、西昔法斯以及其他各色男女的機會，有什么不可舍棄的呢？與他們交流思想并向他們請教問題，將是多么的快樂。在另一個世界他們不會因為提問就把一個人處死：絕對不會。如果傳說屬實，另一個世界的人們除了比我們快樂，還不死永生。
因此，法官們，為死亡歡呼雀躍吧！毫無疑問，好人無論生前死后，都不會得到惡報的。諸神不會對好人及其命運不聞不問；我即將到來的結局也不僅僅是偶然。但我清楚地看到我赴死并擺拖困難的時機已經(jīng)來臨；因此，神諭才沒有顯示。同樣原因，對于譴責我和審判我的人，我也沒有生氣；他們對我沒有造成傷害，盡管他們的本意并不是對我好，對此我有些稍微地責怪他們。
我還要求他們幫個忙。當我的子孫們長大成人，我的朋友們，我要你們嚴厲對待他們；我要你們讓他費心，就像我讓你們費心一樣，如果他們看來更注重財富或什么其他的東西，而不是品德；或者裝作功成名就而實際一事無成--------那么譴責他們，就像我譴責你們一樣，譴責他們不注重他們應該注重的東西，譴責他們認為自己了不起而實際上卻一事無成。如果你們這樣做，我和我子孫都在你們手上得到了公正。
離別的時刻已到，我們各走各的路吧--------我去赴死，你們?nèi)セ?。哪條路更好，只有天知道。】
