Journeyman Philosopher

Over the weekend I had a chance to check out the Body Worlds exhibit touring through Edmonton, Alberta.

The ‘Body Worlds’ exhibit is basically an ‘artistic’ and ‘educational’ display in which donated cadavers are preserved and then displayed in various poses in the attempt to demonstrate the complexity of the human body. It definetily was an interesting exhibit that displayed bodies in very… curious ways. It’s quite educational actually to see how bodies function underneath, coming from a martial artist perspective it was a very useful visualization of attack targeting.

An overall theme of the displays was the attempt to make one realize the limits of their own body and as so their own mortality. When walking through the displays there were numerous billboards quoting ancient greek philosophers talking about death. Most views rotated around the concept that death was not to be feared as evil, as it is a neutral state as so the absence of anything.

I think it is useful to reflect on your own mortality and death. I have practiced visualization since I was very young, but for different reasons then most. I just wanted to throw the question out there; what do you think about reflection on death (useful/useless, necessary/unnecessary, proper application/misapplication)?

For more information on body worlds, you can find the website here .