Death & Immortality

A Letter from the Editor

Dear Tarka Readers,

The American children’s novel (and later film) Tuck Everlasting, proposes that eternal life is more painful than a natural life of aging and death.

In the early part of the book, the male protagonist, Jesse, who has access to a spring that gives immortality, tells his young love that the span of natural life and the aches and pains of old age have their place, that they are better than the alternative. Perhaps there is much to love in the fact of change and the eventual fact of death, despite the fear it raises. The juxtaposition between the idea of immortality and impermanence points to a kind of spiritual impasse; it asks us to consider how we orient ourselves towards the world we live in and demands that we examine our own fragilities. 

One of the earliest monographs on the history and practices of yoga was written by Mircea Eliade and bears the title, “Yoga: Immortality and Freedom.” The pursuit of yoga, historically, was aligned with the accomplishment of siddhis, mystical powers and infinite longevity. It is interesting that despite the great contrast between yoga’s history in Hindu folklore and sacred texts and the modern practices of yoga in an industry of health and wellness, the parallel goals of age-defying, eternal youth are present in both. 

Imagine a spiritual path that promised immortality. One might argue that Abrahamic religious traditions attempt to do this through the belief in salvation and eternal life in heaven. On a more material level, we each grasp at security and permanence through our physical possessions, estate and retirement planning, legacy building, and more. Fast fashion and disposable toys mean that we are used to wearing new clothes and enjoying convenience and entertainment that is untarnished, sterile, and new. It is as if the freshness of the products that we surround ourselves with might also reflect the everlasting youth that the media teaches us to tenuously grasp on to. Through diet, medicine, surgery, miraculous face creams, and more, we push back the tide of the inevitable. Following the discourse of Ernest Becker, we turn away from reality as it is toward the perfect imagination of how life could be. This “denial of death,”(also the title of Becker’s book) is also our own denial of life itself - that messy host of imperfections, conflicting emotions, dirt, and decay. 

Several decades after Becker’s seminal book, the emergence of the internet and social media has made the gap between our actual lives and the ones that we imagine, desire, and strive for even more dramatic. FOMO (fear of missing out), propelled by picturesque images of our friends and acquaintances smiling on vacation or at parties we missed, sits at the tip of our fingers in our handheld devices, filling the moments of our leisure and fatigue. 

It takes bravery to examine and accept things just as they are. In Buddhism this is the first noble truth and a perennially challenging aspect of the path. In yoga, the topic is more complex. Turning toward Hindu narratives in the Upanisads, Yama, the god of death is a great teacher. Yet, we also find narratives of age defying sages, the valor of their yogic accomplishments illustrated by their purported centuries-long lives. And, modern movements within hospice and death positivity are helping us to revalue grief and a variety of rituals and practices for those in the process of dying and their loved ones. 

All of this and more is the topic of the fourth volume of Tarka, On Death. To date, this is the largest issue of Tarka, with a comprehensive range of articles covering psychology, shamanism, Buddhism, Jewish spirituality, Yoga, and Hinduism. The issue also features returning authors and core, beloved faculty from Embodied Philosophy including Isa Gucciardi, Andrew Holecek, Tias Little, Vineet Chander, Mary Reilly Nichols, and more. Compiled in the midst of the pandemic and in the wake of George Flyod’s death, it touches upon the immediacy of death in facing the coronavirus and throughout the Black Lives Matter protests, yet the articles also address core teachings, themes, and narratives from the contemplative traditions that have a perennial relevance. Headlines shift, but the underlying challenges of our human condition continue. 

I encourage you to explore Tarka’s Issue No. 4, On Death, for yourself! 

~ Stephanie Corigliano