“Memento Mori,” or translated in English, “Remember you must die.” The point of this reminder isn’t to be morbid or promote fear, but to inspire, motivate and clarify. The idea has been central to art, philosophy, literature, architecture, and more throughout history. As Socrates says in Plato’s Phaedo, “The one aim of those who practice philosophy in the proper manner is to practice for dying and death.”

Memento Mori

The Stoics used Memento Mori to invigorate life, and to create priority and meaning. They treated each day as a gift, and reminded themselves constantly to not waste any time in the day on the trivial and vain.“Let us prepare our minds as if we’d come to the very end of life. Let us postpone nothing. Let us balance life’s books each day…The one who puts the finishing touches on their life each day is never short of time.”-Seneca

STOICS

Memento Mori is believed to have originated from an ancient Roman tradition. After a major military victory, the triumphant military generals were paraded through the streets to the roars of the masses. But riding in the same chariot, standing just behind the worshipped general, was a slave. The slave’s sole responsibility for the entirety of the procession was to whisper in the general’s ear continuously, “Respice post te. Hominem te esse memento. Memento mori!”“Look behind. Remember thou art mortal. Remember you must die!”

ROMANS

Excavated mummies, tombs, and pyramids reveal that remembering death was entrenched in ancient Egyptian culture. Egyptologists maintain the preservation of dead bodies and the building of elaborate death chambers were an act of celebrating life, and a reverence for its ephemeralness.In the height of celebration, Egyptian custom was to set remembrance to the frailness and fleetingness of festival. Through the visual of the skeleton and the pronouncing of the chant, celebrators reeled in the jollity to acknowledge the moment would soon pass so not to take it for granted.

EGYPTIANS

Life is fleeting so best to not waste it on meaningless goods and pleasures. That’s the message behind vanitas art. Dutch Golden Age artists of the 17th century used still-life as moral instruction. Artists emphasized the emptiness and futility of earthly items. Skulls, candles, hourglasses, watches, rotting fruit, wilting flowers, and fraying books sat atop a table to remind viewers just how precious life is.

VANITAS

While Memento Mori has fallen from consciousness compared to its historical relevance, mortality motivation is practiced modernly in fueling successful entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, authors, among others.

A MODERN RESURGENCE

“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure — these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”

The one eternal truth – rich or not, successful or not, religious, philosophical, it doesn’t matter – you will die. From the beginning of time to the end, death is the one universal inescapable commonality.

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Philosophy

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Religion & Spirituality

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History

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Personal Development

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Society, Arts & Culture

How to Accept Mortality: The History of Memento Mori

The word samurai originally meant “one who serves,” and referred to men of noble birth assigned to guard members of the Imperial Court. This service ethic spawned the roots of samurai nobility, both social and spiritual.

The Samurai 

The best of the samurai were fiercely loyal to their masters and true to the unwritten code of chivalrous behavior known today as Bushido, usually translated as “Precepts of Knighthood” or “Way of the Warrior”.The bushido code was typified by eight virtues according to Nitobe Inazō.

The Bushido Code

Bushido refers not only to martial rectitude, but to personal rectitude:‘Rectitude is one’s power to decide upon a course of conduct in accordance with reason, without wavering; to die when to die is right, to strike when to strike is right.’

Rectitude or Justice

Bushido distinguishes between bravery and courage:Courage is worthy of being counted among virtues only if it’s exercised in the cause of Righteousness and Rectitude. In short, ‘Courage is doing what is right.’

Courage

A man invested with the power to command, and the power to kill, was expected to demonstrate equally extraordinary powers of benevolence and mercy: Love, magnanimity, affection for others, sympathy and pity, are traits of Benevolence, the highest attribute of the human soul.

Benevolence or Mercy

Courtesy is rooted in benevolence: Courtesy and good manners have been noticed by every foreign tourist as distinctive Japanese traits. But Politeness should be the expression of a benevolent regard for the feelings of others; it’s a poor virtue if it’s motivated only by a fear of offending good taste. In its highest form Politeness approaches love.

Politeness

True samurai, according to author Nitobe, disdained money, believing that “men must grudge money, for riches hinder wisdom.Bushido encouraged thrift, not for economical reasons so much as for the exercise of abstinence. Luxury was thought to be one of the greatest downfalls, and severe simplicity was required of the warrior class

Honesty and Sincerity

Though Bushido deals with the profession of soldiering, it is equally concerned with non-martial behavior: The sense of Honor, a vivid consciousness of personal dignity and worth, characterized the samurai. He was born and bred to value the duties and privileges of his profession.

Honor

One should remain loyal to those to whom they are indebted:Loyalty to a superior was the most distinctive virtue of the feudal era. Personal fidelity exists among all sorts of people, but only in the code of chivalrous Honor does Loyalty assume paramount importance.

Loyalty

Bushido teaches that one should behave according to an absolute moral standard, one that transcends logic. What’s right is right, and what’s wrong is wrong. The difference between good and bad and between right and wrong are givens, not arguments subject to discussion or justification, and one should know the difference

Character and Self-Control

The Samurai code, Bushido, guided the Japanese warriors in life, battle, and death. It was the unwritten code of principles and morals, and taught obligation and honor. Although the samurai were all but gone at the turn of the 20th century, Bushido remains as a system of pride and valor in Japanese society.

How to Accept Mortality: The History of Memento Mori

Bushido: The Eight Virtues of the Samurai

Andrew Saunders