A model among models, Socrates, after devoting his life to the city of Athens, was condemned to death by the city, accused of corrupting the youth and introducing new gods. Facing condemnation, Socrates, despite the injustice he suffered and despite the possibility of avoiding death, chose to end his life by drinking hemlock and demonstrating once again his adherence to the laws of the pòlis.
Socrates and the swan song in the Phaedo
The famous phrase quoted in the Phaedo by Plato recalls his last words before he died: “Critius, we owe a rooster to Asclepius: give it to him, do not forget it!” Just as the swan sings its longest and most beautiful song when it feels it is dying, so the wise man shows no anguish in the face of death, but faces it while keeping his balance firm.
A model of behavior in the face of death that became a source of inspiration for many, as evidenced by the vast bibliography relating to the figure of Socrates, and that helped to establish philosophy as a meditatio mortis.
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Hoshin’s wisdom in the face of death
The same resolve of the sage in the face of death demonstrated by Socrates is witnessed in many other cultures. Without disturbing the figure of Jesus of Nazareth, I give below the brief story of Hoshin, a Zen master who lived in China for many years and then returned to teach in the northeastern regions of Japan.
One day Hoshin said to the disciples, “It is not necessary for a Zen master to foretell his own death, but if he really wishes, he can do so. […] Seven days ago I said I was going to leave you. It is customary to write a farewell poem, but I am neither a poet nor a calligrapher. Let one of you write my last words.”
The disciples thought he was joking, but one of them prepared to write. Then Hoshin dictated, “I came from splendor. And I return to the splendor. What is this?” The poem was one verse short of the traditional four, and the disciple said, “Master, one verse is missing.” With the roar of a victorious lion, Hoshin shouted, “Kaa!” And he was dead.
Philosophy as an exercise in death
Death, for the sage, is not a fearful event. Socrates and Hoshin face death with supreme awareness. Both are repositories of knowledge that gives them balance and keeps anguish at bay. Socrates, again in the pages of the Phaedo, states that the swan’s song is an expression of joy, because the candid bird knows it is about to return to its god, and is thus far from what might seem to some a song of sorrow.
Thus, for the wise man, death is not a sorrow, unlike those who are not wise and who mistake a song of joy for a song of sorrow.
Wisdom, then, is something we carry with us in the face of death. To be wise also means to prepare for that fundamental moment of our existence that appears as its termination and takes the form of what we call “Death.” This is why philosophy itself was defined by Plato as an exercise in death.
