From: ‘How To Die: An Ancient Guide to the End of Life’ by Seneca, edited, translated, and introduced by James S. Romm:
Quote: Death is the undoing of all our sorrows, an end beyond which our ills cannot go; it returns us to that peace in which we reposed before we were born. If someone pities the dead, let him also pity those not yet born. (To Marcia 19.4)
Thought: Death is only the undoing of physical sorrows – for a while, before there is rebirth, that leads to the pains of birth, ageing, sickness and death again. It does not end mental ills in terms of greed, hatred and delusion, as habits likely to be carried over to the next life, if there is no drastic change of mind in time. As there is rebirth, that there is peace before this life is an illusion, just as it is illusory that there will be the same peace right after it. How can there be peace that leaps to such a life with turmoil, before leaping back to peace again? We are works in progress after all.