Post 21 – The Joy of Eternity: Death, Overcoming, and the Infinite Appearing of Destiny

Continuing from the previous post, we now explore the meaning of death and its connection to the infinite appearing of all that is (destiny).

Beyond the Illusion of Becoming

Humanity remains trapped in the illusion of becoming: the belief that things come into existence from nothing and vanish into nothing. This illusion generates fear, suffering, and the impulse to control or alter reality. True overcoming of this illusion is not a historical process of progress but the recognition that all beings are already eternally themselves.

This directly relates to what can be called the “I of destiny”, a term that loosely aligns with what other traditions refer to as the soul, spirit, true self, or transcendental self. This is the self that recognizes its eternal nature. The I of destiny affirms everything that happens to it, including pain and contradiction, precisely because it knows these are necessarily surpassed by glory: the ultimate and already present realization of its eternity. Death, rather than being an end, is the manifestation of the necessary order of Being.

Death as the Ultimate Overcoming

To surpass or overcome something does not mean to negate or reject it but to recognize its true nature as eternal. Death, in this sense, is the ultimate test of the mortal perspective: the belief in contingency, loss, and disappearance. The closer one comes to death, the more one is confronted with the limits of this perspective.

However, glory is precisely the recognition that overcoming is already complete. Death does not need to be “overcome” in the traditional sense because nothing is truly lost. Instead, death reveals itself as part of the eternal structure of Being. The mortal self (otherwise referred to as the empirical self, false self, or flesh) resists this realization, but the I of destiny already knows it to be true. “Ah, two souls dwell in my chest,” says Goethe’s Faust, but in reality, this apparent tension and contradiction are already resolved.

The Infinite Appearing of Destiny

This resolution connects with the idea of the infinite appearing of destiny. The recognition of eternal truth does not happen all at once; it is an infinite process of revelation. Even glory, while already fully realized in eternity, appears progressively to those who recognize it. The journey of overcoming never truly “ends”. It is not a final moment in time but an infinite unfolding of recognition.

Thus, death is not a moment of annihilation but a threshold at which the mortal encounters the infinite appearing of truth. To approach death is to approach glory because it marks the final surpassing of the illusion that things can be lost, destroyed, or negated.

Death, Overcoming, and Joy

Every mortal ultimately “wants” everything that happens to them, even suffering, because at the deepest level, they are already the I of destiny, already in glory. Overcoming is not about changing reality but about recognizing that it has always been this way.

Death, then, is not an enemy or an obstacle but part of the necessary unfolding of Being. The fear of death arises from the illusion that things can pass away, but true glory is the recognition that everything is eternal. As Emanuele Severino writes:

We fear death because we confuse it with agony and suffering—phenomena that belong to life.

But what comes after agony? This is the real question of death. Our culture conceives of death as annihilation.

But is it really so? Or is death, rather, an infinite continuation beyond the pain that defines our life?

When people ask me whether I fear death or why I face it with serenity, I reply that the West believes dying means going into nothingness. We must understand that what we think of as a journey into nothingness is, in truth, the disappearance of the Eternal.

When wood turns to ash, we believe the wood is annihilated and that the ash comes into being. But if we look deeply, we see the gradual disappearance of distinct events—the burning wood, then the diminishing fire, then the emergence of ash. Death appears to us in the form of agony; to die is the progressive vanishing of the Eternal as it exits the circle of appearance.

But humanity is destined for Joy.

This is the theme of Joy—the overcoming of all contradictions that pervade our life.

We live in contradiction, but is there a place where every contradiction is surpassed? And what are we in relation to the totality of that place? Is that place not, perhaps, what we truly are? The answer is yes—we are that place.

A place I call Joy.

Joy is not happiness, which is always the satisfaction of a will. Joy, instead, is infinitely higher. It is not an act of will, but the elimination of all contradiction.

This is why approaching death is approaching Joy.

(Source: “Quando Emanuele Severino disse: «Avvicinarsi alla morte è avvicinarsi alla Gioia»” (21/01/2020) – Vita.it)

Ultimately, glory is the Joy of recognition, the realization that nothing is lost, nothing is contingent, and everything is already complete in its eternal necessity. Death is not the end but a passage through which the eternal order becomes ever more apparent. In this sense, getting closer to death is getting closer to glory; not because something new is attained, but because the truth that has always been begins to appear in its infinite radiance.