Think of death as the end, no more you, the person that you define as ‘you’ no longer exists, your whole world ceases to exist, and before you even come to realise that it’s over, it’ll have already happend. How does that honest and trully make you feel?
How and why do we put so much meaning and effort into our lives? Let us picture somebody who cares about life, they love others around them and their really attached to this life, no matter what that person does, Death will always be on their mind if their living in a paticular (philosophical) mannar. But why must we be brought into an existence which we have no choice over, whether or not we want to accept this life, we have no choice, but just to toughen things up a bit, we all have to die! How does that honestly make you feel?
Random replies about what u think of death, does it scare you? anything really…death related!
death is all a part of life, it used to be that stuff died so others could live but humans are weird and box up their dead. i don’t fear it as such but then again i’m not being held at gun point. i feel that we need to die as much as we need to live, i don’t really believe in anything after death but why should you have to? live in the past your dead, live in the future you aint born yet so live in the present and have a good time.
The other night in my dream I died. The result of death was my awakening. I went from one moment into the next. One life into another. The only thing real is the moment your in. I’m coming to think that nothing is more important then the moment. Death will come and go, it is nothing to be afraid of for what possibly can there be to fear? Does it do me much good to constantly think of my life 10 years down the line? To focus my attention on some distant date on which anything may happen, perhaps ill fate, perhaps great fate, perhaps no fate. That too shall be but a moment, and the more I think about the unknown the less I see of the present. Losing sight of life I am allready dead.
Honestly? I don’t care much. I mean, I’m thoroughly convinced by the Buddhist argument against “self” and so if there is no “me” to begin with, what the hell does it matter?
Of course, I have not yet fought through the illusion of “self” and so there would likely be some tinge of fear, etc., at the actual prospect were I to be face-to-face with it, but since it usually isn’t something I’m consciously aware of, I’d have to say that the majority of the time I don’t care. I’m far more worried about other things that actually fill-up my day.
I’d really like to see you back this up with an argument of some sort, 'cause otherwise I’m just going to ignore this completely unfounded claim.
But right now, i am me, and if my existence was merely an illusion created by my imagination then why would i be so attached to such things in life? the arguement about ‘self’ i find is to the point of ‘madness’, i don’t measn it in a way that i’m laughing at people who believe in that theory but i really don’t believe in it, anyway besdies that point.
Doesn’t the simple thought of your existence just make u think life is pointless, everything you ever would have thought of, done would simply come to an end. What if one has a boyfriend/girlfriend, they love them dearly and have done for many years, but then they die. It seems so selfish how you can love somebody and then just die and leave them to go through the agony. Why would you want to put that person through that pain in the first place just by loving them?
In the first place, you are not putting them through pain, you are experiencing love, and they are also. When you die, at least your lover can say that you lived for something, and that you didnt die unloved. But anyway, enough about this love crap. Death is natural. Even more so, its inevitable. Which means its gonna happen. Its coming for you. Its coming for me. Why ponder on it. I mean I suppose that possibly subconsciously im thinking im going to die, I better complete this, or complete that throughout the course of my life. But I sure as hell aren’t thinking about it consciously. I believe that is a waste of cognitive energy.
It pisses me off! Gosh there was so much I had left to do. Skydiving, threesomes, oh man. But hey, wait a minute. Im still conscious. I have thoughts. WHERE AM I? why i possibly couldnt be dead because im still conscious. WHAT A FLUKE!
I believe when you die, it is a sleep without any dreams. We all know that in our sleep, we have dreams but when we wake up, we cannot remember a single thing. Except for the dreams when you are half awake, you only remember dreams when you wake up in them so what i am saying is that death is like being the state of mind where there is nothing, you never wake up. You feel nothing, nothing can touch you emotionally or physically but then there is the “near death experience” which i don’t understand fully. It is obvious that memories play a huge part in this, and because of memories we exist.
I think it is a invalid saying “we no longer exist,” why of course we do. In a material form and will forever exist but not on an interactive level. Think of it as, you are a pebble. You cannot do anything, you do nothing, you just sit there, and interactive objects do things to you on a physical form such as rain, collision and other such factors that can affect you. What do you think the pebble thinks? I don’t think it can think. That is the kind of state you are in when you are dead.
Yet, i still keep the acknowledgement that there may be a possible transcendent being and a possible “heaven” or “hell,” but i yet need to be persuaded to these ideas as i believe we just an inanimate object when we die.
You have to be alive to contemplate this. How do you accept life, how do you stand before it in a mode other than consciousness and pose this question?
How can you have a need of death? You will not be around to experience the absence of this need afterwards, so of what consequence should it be to you?
You experienced something which you label death. But really it is simply a continuation of life, and a misapplied word. How do you conceive of a negative?
I would recommend mixing your Buddhism with a little Sartre (my apologies if you have already done so).
You exist. You find yourself in the past, but you are no longer there. You search for yourself in the future, but you have not yet arrived. You see death every day - in this rock, in this chair. Yes, death is of little consequence to life, but life is also of little consequence to death. (Sorry this is not meant to sound esoteric)
if you didn’t awake from your sleep, would you even know that you ever went to sleep? And yes, death can be looked at in the same way as sleep is, during sleep one isn’t even aware of the surroundings around him, your seriously completeley unaware of your existence. So imagine you go to sleep, but didn’t wake up, like i asked, would you know that u went to sleep?..obviously not i think, because if you did then it just wouldn’t make sense.
‘‘Mapeldinck’’ you said that how could we ever have a choice as to whether or not we’r brought into this existence, to do so you said we would have to be consious. Well seen as we’r not before birth, would you not agree that afterlife is exactly the same as before birth? Meaning we will be in no position to even ‘think’?
if you didn’t awake from your sleep, would you even know that you ever went to sleep? And yes, death can be looked at in the same way as sleep is, during sleep one isn’t even aware of the surroundings around him, your seriously completeley unaware of your existence. So imagine you go to sleep, but didn’t wake up, like i asked, would you know that u went to sleep?..obviously not i think, because if you did then it just wouldn’t make sense.
‘‘Mapeldinck’’ you said that how could we ever have a choice as to whether or not we’r brought into this existence, to do so you said we would have to be consious. Well seen as we’r not before birth, would you not agree that afterlife is exactly the same as before birth? Meaning we will be in no position to even ‘think’?
Of course, your last breathe on the Earth, could be seen as when you fall asleep but this is where my persistence of memory point came in. Because of memory, we are able to understand that we went to asleep. Unless, you got totally pissed/stoned, but you can make an assumption of what happened.
You would never know if you went to sleep truly, but surely there doesn’t have to be a beginning to everything? We seem unable to see before the existence of God, it is said that He has always been, there has never been a before.
Guess this could be applied to death but we could already be dead. Yet, because of memory, we can see that we are not dead. We are conscious, have five senses, able to interact with objects very freely with a respect to the law of physics (that we know of) which some dreams do not allow us to do.
Old age really helps you get ready for death. It does this by making life very annoying. Your bones ache, you suffer pain all the time. Your body falls apart. If you get really old enough then everybody you care the most about will already be gone. Death will come as a relief. No more pain.
You put effort into life because life takes effort. Living is the challenge. Dying is easy. Anyone can choose to die. It takes real courage to choose to live. Choosing to live is choosing to make choices. If you want to reject this life, then do it. Your ticket out is just a moment away. Otherwise breathe deep and revel in the wonder of being alive!
As has been said: Everyone dies, but not everyone truly lives.
I’m sure as hell not scared of death. When it comes to death I prefer to take the bull by the horns. I’ve already had one near death experience, and it was quite enlightening. I know that existance does not cease like you seem to think it does. In fact I believe that even non-existance is not only a form of existance, but the most superior form of existance. In my philosophy to be non-existant is tantamount to being pan-existant, and omnicient as nothing is everything and vice versa. I’ve actually seriously considered drowning myself to have another near death experience (and this time be prepared for it) so to say I am scared of death would be totally false. In fact I look forward to death. Not in a depressed suicidal way, but in a sort of fascination. That is why I have never bought into that survival is the purpose of life bullshit. Life doesn’t end with death. Death is just a sort of renewal
Shybard knows what’s up… whitelotus if you really believe that, you should come over to my house when I decide to have my NDE and observe me explore the realm of death with no fear whatsoever. I’d say with me, more of a lack of fear of death guides me more then a fear of it. You confuse survival instinct with fear also. I have a will to survive, but I have no fear of death. Both life and death are important parts of existance. One shouldn’t constantly strive for one nor the other.
Xanderman, you seem to know personally what death is about. It’s like you have had a personal experience, do you think dying is easy? It takes real courage to live…? No, it’s just given, it’s not like having a intentional car crash. It is difficult to kill yourself because your exploration of the future is inside unless you are totally sick of life. You wish to do things you have not experienced before or continue to do activities you already enjoy. You only seem to apply that it is easy to die because it is inevitable, everyone dies of old age but very few intentionally kill themselves.
This can be applied to anyone who enjoys life. If you went up to someone and said you would give them all the money in the world to only them personally if they went and jumped off the Empire State Building then that would take courage, because what do you gain? Nothing. I don’t think courage really is required for living. It is only when you fear death that you truly appreciate life.
