The Living Dead

It is only death....

Does anyone remember when zombies were dumb, weak, automatons incapable of doing any damage to a living human being unless they had one trapped? The zombie mythology comes from Haiti, whereby a sorcerer evokes the deceased to rise from the grave to do the sorcerers bidding. Bonnie and I got a few laughs out of that movie, Zombieland. It was a spoof on modern zombie movies. In these movies there is no rhyme or reason as in the original myth. Zombies are usually the result of a contagion of some sort and they are animated energetic creatures out to devour the living. 

Santideva; the author of the text, Bodhicaryavatara, speaking of this fear of the bones of the deceased asks, “And why are we frightened by her motionless skeleton when we see it lying in the cemetery but not afraid now when we see her zombie-like body moving about like a walking corpse controlled by momentary impulses?"

            Frankly, I believe the reason zombie movies fascinate enough people to fill the coffers of movie theaters arises from an innate fear of death. That fear of death comes from a fear of a life unlived and in this sense Santideva is right-on. I can further propose that a life without compassion is a life unlived. To go to my grave without having experienced love is a horror of sorts that I have been miraculously relieved of. If I never have anything else of life’s bounty, I am grateful for that.

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