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Because You Can, You Will, And You Do Stop
Some people may find the title of this post in poor taste, or even offensive. It’s not meant to be. Please, read on. Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys, who famously sang, “Because you can’t, you won’t, and you don’t stop!” died recently. Like many of my generation, I was saddened by the news, and spent a few moments thinking about his music and its influence on me.
(My personal favorite story: I was nineteen years old, traveling across the country in a youthful attempt at Kerouacian grace. I had next to nothing: a knapsack, a few dollars in my pocket, and my then prized possession of cool: a red Beastie Boys baseball hat. When I left it on a bus in Wyoming, I was devastated.)
When news of Yauch’s death hit the internet, the response was swiftly eulogistic. But some of the response seemed slightly delusional, as if there was a shock that such a thing could occur. While I too was dismayed at a life snuffed out so young, did we not expect that a mortal man stricken with cancer would someday die?
We are all going to die.
Acceptance of this truth has a big place in Buddhist teachings. I fear we as a culture have become removed from understanding this inevitability. We live longer than ever, we extend our lives further and further with surgeries and medications, and we have more and more tools than even to carve out our own little piece of immortality through photographs, videos and social media sharing.
But is it good for us? Is our relationship with death healthy? Mourning the dead is natural, and appropriate. Living as if death will never come, and can never come, is illusory and harmful.
Of course, news cycles being what they are, the sound and the fury that briefly erupted over Mr. Yauch’s death swiftly disappeared. And with it, it seems, went an opportunity to examine our relationship with those deaths that touch us. “Even death is not to be feared by one who lives wisely,” the Buddha tells us.
Be it our own, or that of others.
(My personal favorite story: I was nineteen years old, traveling across the country in a youthful attempt at Kerouacian grace. I had next to nothing: a knapsack, a few dollars in my pocket, and my then prized possession of cool: a red Beastie Boys baseball hat. When I left it on a bus in Wyoming, I was devastated.)
When news of Yauch’s death hit the internet, the response was swiftly eulogistic. But some of the response seemed slightly delusional, as if there was a shock that such a thing could occur. While I too was dismayed at a life snuffed out so young, did we not expect that a mortal man stricken with cancer would someday die?
We are all going to die.
Acceptance of this truth has a big place in Buddhist teachings. I fear we as a culture have become removed from understanding this inevitability. We live longer than ever, we extend our lives further and further with surgeries and medications, and we have more and more tools than even to carve out our own little piece of immortality through photographs, videos and social media sharing.
But is it good for us? Is our relationship with death healthy? Mourning the dead is natural, and appropriate. Living as if death will never come, and can never come, is illusory and harmful.
Of course, news cycles being what they are, the sound and the fury that briefly erupted over Mr. Yauch’s death swiftly disappeared. And with it, it seems, went an opportunity to examine our relationship with those deaths that touch us. “Even death is not to be feared by one who lives wisely,” the Buddha tells us.
Be it our own, or that of others.
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Comments
what would it look like
to live with the acceptance of the fact that we all die? how do you know that those who mourn yauch don't?
knowing that someone's death is not only inevitable but imminent doesn't lessen the grief around it. maybe it spreads it out over time, but if it's a celebrity, not someone you see day-to-day, it's easy to not know or forget.
I know people who mourn yauch's loss deeply, not only because his music was the soundtrack to their lives. because they are bad-ass and buddhist, it hits particularly hard to know the rest of this journey won't be reflected in new music from MCA.
I'm not being snarky, and I'm not offended. but it feels to me like buddhists always comment about how unaware people are when they are surprised by someone's death. that feels like a buddhist cliche to me.
Chogyam Trungpa said that death comes without warning, going on to add "This body will be a corpse," a verse immortalized on IDP's T-shirt.
in any given moment, death is a surprise.
how would people act to show they are in touch with the reality of death? my mom is 82; she and I know she will die someday. we've talked about it, including details about how she wants the funeral. but when she dies I'll be very sad, and it may look to the world like I expected her to live forever.
Nancy Thompson\
(in case I'm anonymous)
Wow.
Really amazing post eduoardo. I wonder MCA would think of this interpretation.