关于死亡这件事
death
哈佛的一个教授开了一门课，名称雷人：死亡课。
观众爆棚，人气超高。人们对死亡这件事，其实还是挺在意的。不能不在意，人的生命只有一次。
先看看我们古代的哲人孔子如何看待生死。
《论语·先进第十一》记载：季路问事鬼神。
子曰：“未能事人，焉能事鬼。”曰：“敢问死。”曰：“未知生，焉知死？”
（季路问如何侍奉鬼神。孔子说：“还未能侍奉人，怎么来侍奉鬼神呢？”季路又问：“我能问问关于死的事吗？”孔子回答说：“还未能知晓生，如何来知晓死呢？）
【“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.”】
儒家没有超越生死的哲学观念，这是一个典型的事例。
这种观念影响了中国一代又一代的文人学士。司马迁受了宫刑之后，忍辱活在世上，因为儒家要现世担当：
“人固有一死，或重于泰山，或轻于鸿毛，用之所趋异也。太上不辱先，其次不辱身，其次不辱理色，其次不辱辞令，其次诎屈体受辱；其次易服受辱，其次关木索，被菙楚受辱，其次剔毛发，婴金铁受辱，其次毁肌肤，断肢体受辱，最下腐刑极矣。”
要了解生死，戛戛乎难哉！
惠施与庄周谈论生死，庄周说道：
“梦觉之后还是梦，归来故乡无乡情。何者为迷？何者为悟？”
“人世万事皆是梦，故乡只在黄土垅。生便是迷，死便是悟！”
死了也就悟了？
死生实是一贯，犹如昼夜交替，春秋往复。若能参透此理，便能悟出何者为迷，何者为悟。这是庄子的回答。
有点“道可道非常道”的意思，有点“玄而又玄众妙之门”的深奥。
庄子的妻子颜玉去世，庄子鼓盆而歌：
吁嗟吾妻
已归天真
吁嗟庄周
犹然为人
惠施不解，庄子答曰：人本来没有生命，人在来到这个世界上之前，是什么样子，谁也不知道。人在最初的时候，不仅没有生命，而且没有形体；不仅没有形体，而且没有神气。在恍惚之间，产生了混沌之气，气的运行凝聚成人体，形体在气的鼓荡产生了生命老子云：万物芸芸，各复归其根。这个根，就是混沌之气。人的生命和形体来源于混沌之气，到了一定时候，就要回到混沌之气中去。
庄子是悟透 ，是悟透了生死的人，临死前要求弟子不举行任何葬礼，也不要棺椁。他是以天地为棺椁，以日月为葬壁，以星辰为珠宝，以天地万物为斋物，想让自己的躯体早日融化于自然。
弟子蔺且流泪说：先生，将您扔在山上，我害怕鸟雀吃您的肉啊！
庄子说：那你把我埋在地下，就不怕蝼蚁吃我的肉吗？你这分明是将我的肉从鸟雀口中夺过来，送给蝼蚁嘛！
夜里，庄子不辞而别，没有人知道他什么时候死的，也没有人知道他死于何地。
无独有偶，英国大诗人Pope的名诗 On Solitude里写道：
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“大块载我以形，劳我以生，佚我以老，息我以死”的境界，冥冥中中国古代的大哲庄子与英国的大诗人Pope取得了精神上的默契与相通。
但凡能够平静地接受死亡的人，都是在精神上取得了超级自由的人。
苏格拉底被判死刑，面对死亡，他谈笑自如，坦然接受，拒绝用金钱赎罪，也拒绝逃跑，他要用自己的死亡活出自己的哲学原则与生命尊严。面对宣判他死亡的法官以及他的学生和朋友，他慷慨陈词：
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.
【让我们来换一种方式来思考，保证很有理由相信死亡是一件好事；因为以下几点原因——死亡或者是一种虚无和完全无意识状态，或者如人们所说，是灵魂从这个世界到另一个世界的变化和迁移。既然你们认为死后没有意识，而是一种睡眠，一种甚至不被梦所打搅的睡眠，那么死亡真是一种难以言表的获益。因为假如一个人要挑选一个夜晚，这一晚他的睡眠甚至不被睡梦所打扰，再把他生活中的日日夜夜与之相比较，然后告诉我们他生活中的多少日日夜夜比这一夜过得更好更快乐，我相信任何人，不仅是普通人，也包括伟大的国王，都会认为这样的日子为数不多。既然死亡是这么一种本性，我保证死是一种收益；因为来世只是一夜。
假如死亡是到另一地方旅行，正如人们说的所有死人都住在那里，我的朋友们和法官先生们，还有什么比这更美好的事情？假如真的这个朝圣者来到下面的阴间游历，他是被这个世界的法官打发来的，并在那里遇到了真正的法官，像迈诺、拉达门塞斯、阿克斯、特立普托里玛斯，以及一生公正的诸神的儿子，据说他们在那里进行审判，这趟朝圣切实值得。如果能够与俄尔普斯、缪萨尤斯、赫西阿德、荷马交流思想，有什么不可舍弃的呢？如果死后真是这样，我愿意一次次地去死。我本人非常愿意能够见到帕拉默底斯、蒂拉蒙的儿子埃杰克斯和受冤案而死的古代英雄们，与他们交流思想。我认为，与他们的遭遇相比，我所受的痛苦可以算得上快乐了。尤其是，我可以像在这个世界一样，在另一个世界继续进行真伪知识的研究；并且我将分清谁真有智慧，谁假装有智慧，以及谁缺乏智慧。啊，法官们，如果能够得到考察远征特洛伊的领袖们，或者奥德修斯、西昔法斯以及其他各色男女的机会，有什么不可舍弃的呢？与他们交流思想并向他们请教问题，将是多么的快乐。在另一个世界他们不会因为提问就把一个人处死：绝对不会。如果传说属实，另一个世界的人们除了比我们快乐，还不死永生。
因此，法官们，为死亡欢呼雀跃吧！毫无疑问，好人无论生前死后，都不会得到恶报的。诸神不会对好人及其命运不闻不问；我即将到来的结局也不仅仅是偶然。但我清楚地看到我赴死并摆拖困难的时机已经来临；因此，神谕才没有显示。同样原因，对于谴责我和审判我的人，我也没有生气；他们对我没有造成伤害，尽管他们的本意并不是对我好，对此我有些稍微地责怪他们。
我还要求他们帮个忙。当我的子孙们长大成人，我的朋友们，我要你们严厉对待他们；我要你们让他费心，就像我让你们费心一样，如果他们看来更注重财富或什么其他的东西，而不是品德；或者装作功成名就而实际一事无成--------那么谴责他们，就像我谴责你们一样，谴责他们不注重他们应该注重的东西，谴责他们认为自己了不起而实际上却一事无成。如果你们这样做，我和我子孙都在你们手上得到了公正。
离别的时刻已到，我们各走各的路吧--------我去赴死，你们去活。哪条路更好，只有天知道。】
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