December 7

The corporeal life of a human being is a series of changes that he does not notice but which are possible to observe. But the origin of these changes, which first began when he was born, and their end—in death—are beyond human observation.

1

Most certainly I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit. He who loves his life will lose it. He who hates his life in this world will keep it to eternal life.

— John 12:24–25

2

Life is constantly changing its external appearance. Only an ignoramus incapable of seeing beyond the surface of things thinks that life is destroyed when it disappears in a particular form. For if it disappears in one particular form, it is only because it will appear again in another. A caterpillar disappears and again appears in the form of a butterfly, a baby disappears, but in its place appears a youth; an animal man disappears and appears anew as a spiritual man.

— Lucy Mallory

3

What is an acorn but an oak deprived of its branches, leaves, trunk, roots, i.e. all its forms and features, but which is concentrated in its essence, in its productive force, which can again reclaim everything it has discarded? This impoverishment is therefore only an external reduction. To return to one’s eternity—that is what it means to die. To die does not mean to perish, but to return to one’s potentiality.

— Amiel

4

Had we not already been resurrected once from that state in which we knew of the present less than what we at present know of the future? The relationship between our present state and the future is the same as the relationship between our past state and the present.

— Lichtenberg

5

Are you really afraid of change? After all, nothing in the world happens without change. It is impossible to heat up water without a transformation of firewood; nourishment is impossible without a change to food. All the life in the world is nothing but change. Understand that the transformation awaiting you is of the same kind, that it is necessary due to the very nature of things. There is only one thing you should care about, and that is to ensure that you do not do anything that is contrary to the true nature of the human being, and to be guided by it in everything that you do.

— Marcus Aurelius

6

Everything in the world grows, blooms and returns to its roots. To return to one’s roots is to enter a state of tranquility in harmony with nature. To be in harmony with nature is to be eternal; therefore, the destruction of the body does not in itself pose any danger.

— Laozi

Death is a transformation of the form to which our soul is connected. We should not confuse the form with what is connected to it.