Sheldon Kopp was a psychotherapist who wrote several books. “If You Meet the Buddha on the Road, Kill Him” was actually devoted to the demonstration of important truths about human beings, their thoughts and fears, are to be found in the world’s great literature. (The title refers to the need to avoid hero-worship.) At the end of that book, Kopp listed 43 basic truths that he thought everyone should know and understand. He titled the list “the eschatological laundry list”. “Eschatology” is defined as the study of last or final things, such as death, the end of the world, etc. The list is provocative and valuable but it seems to actually be about living more than final things.
As far as I know, the sun is said to be about 5 billion years old and is thought to be good for another 5 billion years. That is long enough for quite a lot to happen yet. So, I won’t hold my breath until the end of the world.
I have found the list valuable and so have others. I found six different web sites which listed the 43 statements, which begin with “This is it!”. When I first read the list, there were a lot of statements I thought valuable but I didn’t understand what was meant by the first one. When I looked at the collection of photographs by Claire Flanders, I got the message. She showed a photo of some old grave stones. The message is similar to “Life is not a dress rehearsal” or “Life is real, life is earnest and the grave is not the goal” from A Psalm of Life by H.W. Longfellow.
Here is a link to Kopps' list of basic truths
