the search

During the last visit of LACMA, I went to see one of my favor subject, mummy. Ancient Egypt’s burial ritual always fascinating me, I would never get tired of the mystical story regarding archeology’s discovering of mummy and pyramid. Egyptians believe after life. They believe that the sun-god, Ra will descended into the underworld when the sun sets; and the dead will go with Ra to the underworld. Similarly, the dead will be re-born with Ra when the sun rises. Yet, there lies the danger of the passing through death to rebirth. Therefore, the sarcophagus and the process of mummification are very important to the Egyptians’ belief. Egyptians believe only the important one, rulers, priest…etc, is entitle to be born again. When the important one had died, people will wrapped one’s body with linen and embalmed with fragment in order to keep the preserve the body as much as possible as alive. People will depicted the face of the dead one on the board of the coffin or on statues to represent the dead one’s eternal youth and free from any blemishes. The outward appearance of the dead would reflect this keeps the person’s spirit, ka, by recognizing it’s own body in afterlife.
As for the modern age, people don’t believe after life. They are not even religious. Nietzsche said, “Where is god? He is dead, because we have killed him, you and I.” Since god is dead, where can we search for answers? Individuals turn to his/her inner being for answers. It's funny how people are always searching! In the ancient time, when people believe that there is god or are gods, they are searching for the purpose of human life and the higher meaning of life. After Nietzsche declared god is dead. People are still searching for meaning of life. It seems like a never-ending quest. Can human being find the answer of the meaning of human life? It depends. It depends on whether or not you wanted it to be found or not.