If you were never to see me again, that would only make things worse. If you go on as you are, you will not live another five days. Do you remember anything I said to you earlier? There is nothing I can do to make you want to live, is not that so? Will you listen to me, then? Really listen? You are going to weep over me? Anxiety over about death is generally castration anxiety, because no one has ever actually experienced literal death, and, therefore, death cannot be in the unconscious. However, who has ever experienced literal castration? Many people do not address death because they like the illusion of the invincibility of psychoanalysis. For to confront and acknowledge death—our own death and the death of others is the emergence of destiny, now in the sense of necessity, in its extreme and ultimate form. To admit this aspect of destiny, this confession of finitude, would be to admit that psychoanalysis—and Dr. Freud and Dr. Fromm and all the rest of us mortals as well—would have to give up the craving for invincibility. This is to accept our finiteness and our mortality. It is to join the club of the human, the club of the finite, the vincibly, the vulnerable, the vulnerable; the club of the poignant mortals. #RandolphHarris 1 of 5

The awareness of death is required by the yes-no characteristic of human consciousness. Consciousness is never static: it knows one thing because that is opposite to something else. It experiences things dialectically, like an electric current with positive and negative poles. We become aware of something by virtue of its contrast with its background. If they fly were perfectly still, the frog would never see it. However, the fly moves once, and the frog takes aim; the fly moves again and the frog gobbles it up. Again, we hear the echo of the ancient wisdom of Heraclitus: “People do not realize that what is opposed to something is also identical with it.” Life is the opposite of death, and thoughts of death are necessary if we are to think significantly of life. Who has not thought at some moment of great joy, “I hope I never die!” Or on seeing some breathtakingly beautiful view of the Alps “This makes me feel like eternity-I am beyond life and death.” Or not toiling at some challenging task “May Heaven help me to live long enough to finish my work.” Or at some moment of discouragement “Death would be better than this!” Or at a time of great fatigue, “He giveth his beloved rest.” We need not talk about thoughts of suicide at all. For all the above illustrations are of the poignancy of life, and they all contain references to death. The most intense experiences of life bring with them the most intense experiences of death. #RandolphHarris 2 of 5

Mortals pass their whole lives in error when they might pass them in truth. They do wrong when they might do good. The result is suffering when it might be peace. When all the chief decisions of a mortal’s life are made in a condition of spiritual ignorance, what other results may be expected than unfortunate ones? It is a bitter moment—and the consciousness of one’s error falls painfully upon one—when one discovers that the aims one pursued have led one up a blind alley and that the ambitions one nurtured have yielded only ashes for one’s hands. The parable of the Prodigal Son now assumes an intimate meaning for one. One may derive an astringent wisdom from all these unpleasant consequences of the lower ego’s activities. It has indeed been like a blind mortal tremblingly feeling one’s way and moving from one mishap to another, making one false step after another. When one see how the littler personal self has brought one so much pain, sorrow, disappointment, and waste of years, that even when it brought one success the latter turned out to be false and deceptive, one will become yearn to get away from it altogether. #RandolphHarris 3 of 5

In all of us, open or hidden, admitted or repressed, the despair of truth is a permanent threat. We are children of our period as Pilate was. Both are periods of disintegration, of a World-wide loss of values and meanings. Nobody can separate oneself completely from this reality, and nobody should even try. Let me do something unusual from a Christian standpoint, namely, to express praise of Pilate—not the unjust judge, but the cynic and sceptic; and of all those amongst us in whom Pilate’s question is alive. For in the depth of every serious doubt and every despair of truth, the passion for truth is still at work. Do not give in too quickly to those who want to alleviate your anxiety about truth. Do not be deduced into a truth which is really your truth, even if the seducer is your church, or your party, or your parental tradition. Go with Pilate, if you cannot go with Jesus; but go in seriousness with him! Twofold are the temptations to evade the burden of asking for the truth that matters. The one is the way of those who claim to have the truth and the other is the way of those who do not care for the truth. They point to their traditions which goes back to Abraham. Abraham is their father; so they have all the truth, and do not need to be worried by the question which they encounter in Jesus. #RandolphHarris 4 of 5

The World is twofold for mortals in according to their twofold attitude. One perceives the being that surrounds one, plain things and beings as things; one perceives what happened around one, plain processes and actions as processes, things that consist of qualities and processes that consist of moments, things recorded in terms of spatial coordinates and processes recorded in terms of temporal coordinates, things and processes that are bounded by other things and processed and capable of being measured against and compared with those others—an ordered World, a detached World. This World is somewhat reliable; it as density and duration; its articulation can be surveyed; one can get it out again and again; one recounts it with one’s eyes closed and then checks with one’s eyes open. There it stands—right next to your skin if you think of it that way, or nestled in your soul if you prefer that: it is your object and remains that, according to your pleasure—and remains primally alien both outside and inside you. You perceive it and take if for your truth; it permits itself to be taken by you, but it does not give itself to you. It is only about it that you can come to an understanding with others; although it takes a somewhat different form for everybody, it is prepared to be a common object for your; but you cannot encounter others with it. Without it you cannot remain alive; its reliability preserves you; but if you wee to die into it, then you would be buried in nothingness. #RandolphHarris 5 of 5