Laozi's ideal of returning to the infant's consciousness—before learned fear of death—suggests we can consciously undo acquired mortality anxiety.
Laozi frequently praised the infant: wholeness, no rigid opinions, trust in existence without grasping. Infants don't fear death because they haven't learned the concept. Laozi suggested that wisdom lies not in acquiring more knowledge but in returning to that original openness—while keeping our capacity to navigate the world. This directly addresses memento mori practice: the goal isn't to collect death-facts that increase anxiety, but to unlearn the defensive postures that death-fear creates. Adults construct elaborate protections: perfectionism, status-seeking, endless distraction. These feel necessary because we fear death. Yet they keep us in constant contraction. Returning to infancy consciousness—trusting the present, releasing the need to control outcomes, being moved by what's genuinely alive in this moment—is paradoxically how we face mortality most clearly. You don't deny death; you refuse to organize your entire life around denying it. This Taoist regression to wholeness is advanced Stoicism: remembering you will die becomes not an anxious rehearsal but permission to finally live.
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