In The Farthest Shore,
Ursula Le Guin describes the afterlife of Earthsea as a land of
perpetual shadow where nothing grows. It is a barren, rock-strewn
plain that slopes down to an ever-dry riverbed, beyond which is a
range of high mountains. Scattered throughout this expanse are towns
and villages populated with the spirits of the dead – all the dead,
regardless of their behavior during life, for the afterlife is not
divided into Heaven and Hell in Earthsea. The dead wander about their
towns, but they do nothing nor interact with each other, for in death
there is nothing to be done. Nor do the dead feel anything, for there
are no feelings in death. They are neither happy nor sad nor angry
nor any other emotion. The dead simply are,
for eternity.
Those
familiar with Mesopotamian myths such as The Descent of
Ishtar will recognize this
vision of the afterlife. The underworld is nothing more than the land
of the dead, where they consume mud and dust (Ged, Le Guin's archmage
of Earthsea, says the dead drink dust, for there is no water in the
afterlife, making it a sort of polar opposite to the living world of
oceans and islands). In both Earthsea and Mesopotamia death is
dreaded: Ged states that it is right to fear death, while even
Ereshkigal, Mesopotamian goddess of the underworld, weeps for those
she takes and laments the fact that she is as trapped as the dead.
The reason the living should fear death is simple: it is the end of
everything that defines life. All feelings and experiences, whether
good or bad, cease at the moment of death, and the dead continue on
in an emotionless eternity where nothing happens and nothing changes,
because in the underworld nothing can ever change. Life is savored
because it is only while alive that we can experience anything and
everything, from pain to pleasure, joy and grief, happiness and
anger. The key dichotomy between death and life can be boiled down to
stasis versus change.
The western
monotheisms, from Zoroastrianism up to Islam, alter the understanding
of the afterlife and the realm of the dead by introducing the
concepts of an eternal reward or an eternal punishment after death,
which is to say, they split the land of the dead in two, creating
Heaven and Hell. Where you end up after you die is no longer a
certainty, and your final and everlasting disposition is dependent
upon your actions and beliefs in this life. This revision of the
concept of death is one of the worst things that could have happened
to religion, not because it changes the meaning of death, but because
it changes the meaning of life.
Under
the ancient religions of the Near East life possesses ultimate
meaning because it is the only thing we have, the only existence in
which it is even possible to do anything and feel anything. Death,
being the same destiny for all, is something to be avoided, not
something to be dwelt on. This life is all that matters. But once
death involves a choice
of eternities it becomes the focus of all endeavors. Beliefs and
actions in life no longer matter in themselves, their ultimate
importance now lies in where they lead in the afterlife. Life under
such a belief system loses ultimate meaning and is no longer lived
for its own sake but for what happens after. Heaven and Hell crowd
out other concerns, and worry over the final fate of your spirit
prevents you from being fully present in this world right now.
This
is Ged's lesson from The Farthest Shore
– death may be feared, but rather than focus on the fear of death
we must instead be present to life, because this is the only
existence in which there is the possibility of joy, even if it is
also the only existence in which there is the possibility of pain.
While death is a dreadful state of being, to be caught up in the fear
of death draws all the pleasure out of life. The empty underworld of
death is inevitable and because
it is unavoidable it is better to focus on living your life.
Death
is as inevitable and eternal in the Near Eastern monotheisms, but
because one end is desirable and the other is not death becomes
transformed into life's focus. Unlike the life-centered beliefs of
Earthsea and Mesopotamia, the monotheisms are death-centered
traditions in which death becomes life's ultimate concern. This is
most vividly exemplified in Christianity, where much attention is
paid to Christ's death and resurrection – Easter being the major
Christian holiday – while less attention is paid to what
he did while he was alive, his
teachings both in word and deed which he said are the keys to the
kingdom. For many Christians it is this wholehearted belief in the
dying-and-rising Christ that defines their religion, and sincerely
holding on to this right belief is the means of escaping Hell. But
the focus is still death, the focus is still, “I want to go to
Heaven, I don't want to go to Hell,” rather than “I want to live
life.”
Perhaps what Christ meant when he said, “They know not
what they do,” was his followers were going to misunderstand the
meaning of his execution and look only to that event rather than live
according to his teachings.
