Dervish Authenticity

"Die before you die." --Prophet Muhammad

"The possibility of death...shows my world as the kind of place in which no way of being will be ultimately successful, no way of being will allow me to continue being who I am. This recognition, Heidegger believes, should shatter our reliance on cultural norms and practices, which purport to give us the right way to live. Coming to terms with death, then, allows us to take responsibility for ourselves...In anticipating death, I take responsibility for myself. I become authentic, my own person, meaning that I accept that my decisions are not required or essential, because there is no right way to be a human being. As a consequence of my anxiety in the face of death, I am set free to live my life as my own rather than doing things merely because others expect me to do them...Because it makes it possible to be authentic, Heidegger believes that death is not in and of itself to be resented and avoided. Indeed, far from interfering with life, anxiety in the face of death brings 'an unshakable joy' (Being and Time, p. 358). After all, the fact that our lives will end only gives that much more weight and significance to the particular choices that we make in life."

--Mark Wrathall, How to Read Heidegger, 69-70.

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