The Transience of Existence, as Universal Symbol, Archetypal Image, In All Great High Cultures: Memento Mori, its Cognate Maranasati, or, For Example, Mono no Aware (物の哀れ)

The Transience of Existence, of Fleeting Time, as image, or, so to speak, archetypal symbol, is something clearly known throughout time with both profundity and depth - in all great flourishing cultures, now, or soon-to-be perished and withered within the annals of time. That is, specific to their situation in time and space, cosmos and being, expressed according to linguistic modality, as well as custom and convention - unequivocally, there is a clear point of reference. With that said, as a comparative symbol of material and visual culture, it is evidently something that cannot be confined to a given people of their respective period and of their lived reality according to mere socio-cultural conventions of the time, or the Spirit of the Age, or merely, for that matter, imaginal in its provenance as form of poetic license, thus devoid of ontological veracity or living truth. Its clear universality, with respect to any condition or change in time, is self-evident. Moreover, In the history of ideas, the temporal nature of time is thus something that seemingly bridges whatever lines of separation there may exist between, say, the thought of Heraclitus, or that of Adi Shankara; similarly, in terms of the history of visual culture, a Roman mosaic of the Wheel of Fortune is accordingly not so dissimilar to, say, the Classical Indian conception of Bhavacakra

Roman mosaic representing the Wheel of Fortune which, as it turns, can make the rich poor and the poor rich; in effect, both states are very precarious, with death never far and life hanging by a thread: when it breaks, the soul flies off. And thus are all made equal. (Collezioni pompeiane. Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli)

As a symbolic conception vis-a-vis the human condition, and, moreover, perhaps in line with the common Hermetic axiom, which is to say, as the human condition bears its own likeness, reflection or resemblance to the cosmos, this seems to be a common motif so to speak throughout all classical high cultures. The classical Indo-Vedic conception of maraṇasati meditates on death in the same manner the Greco-Roman world exhorts the individual to engage with one's mortality - that is, memento mori . Maranasati is of course a Pāli compound of maraṇa 'death' (an Indo-European cognate of Latin mori) and sati 'awareness', thus very close to memento mori. (It is notably used in early Buddhist texts, the suttapiṭaka of the Pāli Canon, with parallels in the āgamas of the "Northern" Schools). But, regardless of very clear linguistic affinities, it perhaps suffices to show never the less the universality of those metaphors, allegories and symbols which belong properly to the archaic or classical world as they survive for posterity in the present tense.

Moreover, In Japan, the influence of Zen Buddhist contemplation of death on indigenous culture can be gauged by the following quotation from the classic treatise on samurai ethics, Hagakure:

The Way of the Samurai is, morning after morning, the practice of death, considering whether it will be here or be there, imagining the most sightly way of dying, and putting one's mind firmly in death. Although this may be a most difficult thing, if one will do it, it can be done. There is nothing that one should suppose cannot be done.

In the annual appreciation of cherry blossom and fall colors, hanami and momijigari, it was philosophized that things are most splendid at the moment before their fall, and to aim to live and die in a similar fashion. (See also Mono no aware (物の哀れ)

Lastly, In a practice text written by the 19th century Tibetan master Dudjom Lingpa for serious meditators, he formulates the second contemplation in this way:[29][30]

On this occasion when you have such a bounty of opportunities in terms of your body, environment, friends, spiritual mentors, time, and practical instructions, without procrastinating until tomorrow and the next day, arouse a sense of urgency, as if a spark landed on your body or a grain of sand fell in your eye. If you have not swiftly applied yourself to practice, examine the births and deaths of other beings and reflect again and again on the unpredictability of your lifespan and the time of your death, and on the uncertainty of your own situation. Meditate on this until you have definitively integrated it with your mind... The appearances of this life, including your surroundings and friends, are like last night's dream, and this life passes more swiftly than a flash of lightning in the sky. There is no end to this meaningless work. What a joke to prepare to live forever! Wherever you are born in the heights or depths of saṃsāra, the great noose of suffering will hold you tight. Acquiring freedom for yourself is as rare as a star in the daytime, so how is it possible to practice and achieve liberation? The root of all mind training and practical instructions is planted by knowing the nature of existence. There is no other way. I, an old vagabond, have shaken my beggar's satchel, and this is what came out. ( 'Dujdom Lingpa's Visions of the Great Perfection, Volume 1)

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