Fire and Stone

This is a work in progress and I hope to update it as I write more.

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to cut away. Death is the ultimate perfection, the ultimate cleansing. Death is but an action, the separation of life from matter. Matter, the body, is an imperfect vessel for carrying life. It decays; it ages, and becomes unable to support the immortal soul. When the imperfection is cut away, when death is achieved, the soul is what is left. It is only in death that we are complete and only thereafter that we are at peace. Life and death are not opposing forces, but merely energy and a transformation. Fear not the flame, as it is the sign of both life and death. It burns the flesh and sears the mind; it cleanses us of ourselves. Fire is energy and the source of continuing life. Yet without fire, without this transformative force, matter could not grow. Embrace death as change and you shall see the life/death dichotomy fall apart.

Value rigidity is common problem when working with a theory such as this. The theory is asking you not only to accept a new idea, which is a scary idea on its own, but to reject ideas that have been a part of your thought process for years. In order to overcome this problem, you should work with the theory one component at a time.

“Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to cut away.” Normally, you think of something being perfect when it is complete. This has a connotation of building something up, starting from scratch. In that case, you start with nothing and end with something, and the net process is a positive addition. In the case of this theory, it’s almost the opposite. You start with something, body and soul, and end with something else, a soul freed from the body encumbering it. The removal of the mortal component makes the soul better. Think of sculpture. When working with a medium like clay, you start with nothing and form the clay to your liking until you have a finished product. When working with a medium such as marble, you start with a large block and chisel away unnecessary material until you have a similar product. Talk to any sculptor who has worked with a material like this and they will tell you that the end product is there from the beginning, all they are doing is removing the marble that is blocking your view of it. In this context, the finished sculpture is an enlightened soul, and the body is the marble blocking your view.

“Death is the ultimate perfection, the ultimate cleansing. Death is but an action, the separation of life from matter… Life and death are not opposing forces, but merely energy and a transformation.” The common thought is that death is the end of life. When death occurs it is not the end of life. This is an incomplete thought. Death is the end of the interaction between life and matter. Upon death the soul, the essence of life, is separated from the body, the form of matter. The immortal soul cannot die, only the matter in which it is contained. Our finished sculpture is the soul. After a certain point, the body simply weighs it down; it is in the way of freedom. Death is not a lasting condition. It is not a state of being, but a transformation of the energy that is life. Death happens in a moment and then it is gone. The lasting condition is the human grief of the people left in its wake. They see the excess marble and grieve its loss. These emotions keep them, for a time, from seeing the statue that is their loved one’s soul.

Author's Note

For those of you who think this sounds familiar, you're remembering the first draft of my introductory paragraph: http://www.writerscafe.org/writing/zImageCrafter/778511

Reviews

[Steve]

Lots of interesting ideas and comparisons here