You are going to die. Death philosophies...

I've been thinking a lot about death lately. All of you are going to die at some point in time. Some of you will be lucky and die in your sleep peacefully while others might feel horrible pain. Death is permanent. Its part of life and gives grief to everyone. How do you cope with that? Knowing that you are going to die...

But what is death exactly? I'm confused really...

I always thought death was a key. When it happens you will know the truth. Its like opening a gate to a whole new world. Then again maybe death isn't a key. Maybe we are just going to die and just cease to exist, but if we cease to exist does that mean we really never existed at all?

If you do have a soul or some sort of "immaterial" apart from your flesh that moves on to a another spiritual world or something like that are we going to live on forever? Immortality is real even if you commit suicide? Its just astounds me to think of this.

Does the value of life of change for you when you think of it?

So I am just wondering what your theories are and how you cope or how your attitude is affected by death.

Die every moment and you will know life. If you reincarnate every moment as the thing you 'were', what can be born anew?

reply to post by CommandoRenegade


These are questions that I ask myself daily, to the point where I 'guilt' myself into doing/not doing things for others because since I was little my dad would always say to live life in a way that your obituary will be positive. In a nutshell, i want to leave a positive legacy, but again sometimes 'guilting' myself into doing things for legacy is a pain in the bum and it counter productive because sometimes i get bitter about me being one of the only ones who actually cares about other peoples feelings.

I've continue to think just like you: when we die, there must be some 'key', some clarity, truth and answers to all of these questions. All I can say is that life takes courage and hopefully we will have answers.

Good luck finding peace bro.

Originally posted by CommandoRenegade
I've been thinking a lot about death lately. All of you are going to die at some point in time. Some of you will be lucky and die in your sleep peacefully while others might feel horrible pain. Death is permanent. Its part of life and gives grief to everyone. How do you cope with that? Knowing that you are going to die...

But what is death exactly? I'm confused really...

I always thought death was a key. When it happens you will know the truth. Its like opening a gate to a whole new world. Then again maybe death isn't a key. Maybe we are just going to die and just cease to exist, but if we cease to exist does that mean we really never existed at all?

If you do have a soul or some sort of "immaterial" apart from your flesh that moves on to a another spiritual world or something like that are we going to live on forever? Immortality is real even if you commit suicide? Its just astounds me to think of this.

Does the value of life of change for you when you think of it?

So I am just wondering what your theories are and how you cope or how your attitude is affected by death.

My theory is death is a gateway, and we are going home when we die. We may choose to reincarnate, and that most souls throughout humanities 400,00 years of existence have been recycled. I believe that afterlife is nothing but collective consciousness that would could not understand it while we are alive. As for the reason we are sent here to live and die, maybe it is to learn. Humanity may have existed long before the history books say, and that would imply multiple catastrophes. Maybe our creator wants us to learn how to find peace and quit being aholes before he lets us in.

I am an atheist - it makes things much simpler -

- Death has no regrets
- Death leaves no guilt
- Death is absolutely nothing -- not nothingness nothing

Remember how it was before the egg that became you and the sperm met. That is exactly what death will be like. The take away on that is be the best you can be live as much as you can, enjoy life. When it is done it is done as it has been for countless individuals before you and countless after. You won't miss out on anything because of the nothingness thing.

Humans are not wired to easily conceive of life with them not a part of it - that is why all of the afterlife mythologies. I have always taken comfort in the fact that there is nothing after death - it means that there is no fear of death -- thankful for each year but but not afraid that there won't be another.

My bucket list is complete except for one thing. And that may or may not happen.

reply to post by spyder550


Do you not hope for a afterlife?

Originally posted by spyder550
I am an atheist - it makes things much simpler -

- Death has no regrets
- Death leaves no guilt
- Death is absolutely nothing -- not nothingness nothing

Remember how it was before the egg that became you and the sperm met. That is exactly what death will be like. The take away on that is be the best you can be live as much as you can, enjoy life. When it is done it is done as it has been for countless individuals before you and countless after. You won't miss out on anything because of the nothingness thing.

Humans are not wired to easily conceive of life with them not a part of it - that is why all of the afterlife mythologies. I have always taken comfort in the fact that there is nothing after death - it means that there is no fear of death -- thankful for each year but but not afraid that there won't be another.

My bucket list is complete except for one thing. And that may or may not happen.

Do you ever think that this nothing is an afterlife itself? Maybe we perceive it as nothing because we can't understand it. Our own minds are the only thing we can prove real.

The concept of heaven has always seemed strange to me. I don't want to exist eternally in heaven, that would get boring. I think it would be waaay more complex than just going to another plane and saying "sup god"

Before wondering about 'after' life - first find out what life is.
Death will be like this.
youtu.be...

Your post reminded me of something I wrote many years ago. Thanks for helping me recall a memory that has been gone for awhile.

Death the final stage of growth.
Death disease.
Death rememberance imortality.
Death funerals,burials and mourning.
Death history.
Dying in the age of eternal life.
Death imagination.
Death a fact of life.
Death by choice, say goodnight.
Death penalty, death violent.
The moment of death a dark tomb.
Death in a dark womb.
Death a game of magic causing fear and havoc.

We should not fear death, we should embrace it.
The body may die my friend, but the soul lives on.

PLPL

reply to post by humanityisawful


Yes it would seem complex because you think it would be some kind of scientific phenomenon right? But if you think about non-logical things like a god or reincarnation does it really have to be complex?

death is just a part of life, if we have souls, we will find out what happens to our souls when these bodies die, we cant possibly know what happens to our souls until we r dead, our physical bodies will break down to its base form and become new life on this earth.

reply to post by spyder550
Those were all my exact thoughts as well, until my mum died.

I don't want to think that I've lost her forever, and that she's nothing, disappeared into nowhere, I'd like to think she's still here looking over me, every time I dream of her I take it like a visit, like I really am connecting with her, not just my imagination.

As for the thought of when and how I die, I really couldn't care anymore, but I definitely don't want to die to be born again as a human, that'd suck.

Originally posted by CommandoRenegade
reply to post by humanityisawful

 

Yes it would seem complex because you think it would be some kind of scientific phenomenon right? But if you think about non-logical things like a god or reincarnation does it really have to be complex?

Science is what we use to TRY and explain the unexplainable. When I talk about the afterlife, I am talking in a spiritual sense. I believe we still exist after death, but in a way we cannot understand using science or theology.
What if God is not what we think he/she is? We just dont know..To me it HAS to be more complex because anything we conceive on earth is flawed. We are only human, and could not possibly understand it at this time. If it is something that can be explained by us, then why would it even exist? If we could explain the afterlife, then why wouldn't we start out in the afterlife?

Two relevant questions: What is death? and Who am I?

Death of the body: The body is always in constant change. In fact, all matter is constantly changing (the more dense slower than the less dense). We do not say ice dies when it melts back to water, or a rock dies when it crumbles to sand, nor do we say a chemical or mineral is ever born. So when we talk of "death" we are not talking about the body changing form because that is always happening, we must be speaking about the end of the perceiver (perception).

Death of the perciever: Perception is the perciever (the "I" thought) of the body. It too is constantly changing. In fact, every night this 'perciever' disappears, and in deep sleep even perception ceases. Yet existence remains without the perciever or perception. So there must be some underlying force or base or driver... behind matter (the body) and the mind (the perciever) keeping everything in motion so existence can occur.

Death of the unknown: I will not give this unknown a name, some may call it spirit or soul as you have (others may call it the Self or God), but I will leave it as 'unknown'. Whatever it is, it is never separate from us because it is the 'force' that is driving the body (matter) to change forms and it is allowing the perception to arise. So we cannot say we die and return to it because we are it and it is in constant movement (existence).

So then who dies? The body? The perciever? When were they ever born?

Originally posted by CommandoRenegade
I've been thinking a lot about death lately. All of you are going to die at some point in time. Some of you will be lucky and die in your sleep peacefully while others might feel horrible pain. Death is permanent. Its part of life and gives grief to everyone. How do you cope with that? Knowing that you are going to die...

But what is death exactly? I'm confused really...

I always thought death was a key. When it happens you will know the truth. Its like opening a gate to a whole new world. Then again maybe death isn't a key. Maybe we are just going to die and just cease to exist, but if we cease to exist does that mean we really never existed at all?

If you do have a soul or some sort of "immaterial" apart from your flesh that moves on to a another spiritual world or something like that are we going to live on forever? Immortality is real even if you commit suicide? Its just astounds me to think of this.

Does the value of life of change for you when you think of it?

So I am just wondering what your theories are and how you cope or how your attitude is affected by death.

How can anybody that's middle age ( at least ), NOT think about it? In our politically-correct culture we often push this aside and replace it with religion or spiritualism or dogooder optimism, but behind closed doors people harbor doubts. Even christians have doubts, but they usually keep those doubts between themselves and god.

My opinion is that any after-life that proceeds after this one must be inclusive towards other life. Therefore, if humans have an after-life then so do dolphins and monkeys and other similar forms of life on this planet. It may extend to ALL forms of life, in fact. It just wouldn't make sense to restrict itself to humans alone. It's possible that we're part of something strictly human-like, a sort of continuum, wherein our real selves exist somewhere else and our physical selves on earth are simply a virtual representation of our consciousness. But I consider this spurious and unlikely. It's also human-centric. It allows us to continue to exploit other life as we desire to and it isolates us and makes us special. I prefer to think that any after-life has a natural explanation and therefore is probably inclusive. I also prefer not to make us special.

My actual belief is that when we die we will simply shut off and become worm food. We will not exist again except as a memory. And we probably will be deleted from memory at some future point, so we won't be a memory forever. People probably cannot remember us forever, neither can the material things that we leave behind. But it might be possible that some future form of life discovers a method to observe the past and will use it to exercise our memory. This might allow our memory to virtually exist forever. But that's not the same thing as immortality because our memory is not conscious. In my humble opinion, this is the most reasonably optimistic view on death.

I think the thing about death that bothers us is that we live our life to overcome, but we cannot overcome death. We see people we love and care for die. We can do nothing to stop it. And we watch as everything we worked hard for is slowly taken away from us. Our senses also are gradually decayed as is our body until we can no longer hold onto life. The idea that we cannot overcome these things haunts us and is probably a impetus for us to create and believe our own fantasies. These fantasies enable for us the ability to have an after-life. Or they remove the meaning in this reality so that we do not have to feel emotions or fear. Religions and spiritualism and philosophy are all examples. This latest trend where people contemplate reality being a computer matrix is the same thing too. It's a kind of self-defense mechanism.

I wish the best to everyone. Don't let the emotions and fears of mortal death cripple you. Remember that a big part of meaning is in OTHERS. You need other people. And you need to help someone.

Originally posted by Itisnowagain
Die every moment and you will know life. If you reincarnate every moment as the thing you 'were', what can be born anew?

Just reading this makes me feel more stupid , a philosopher you are not .

OP we do not die but move on to the next life some of us will move into their spiritual body with a mortal soul and others will have both a spiritual body and soul . I helped a friend of mine die last year who was not ready but in the end his acceptance brought him peace and while comatose he held a conversation with some unknown person until his daughters arrived and he reached out and let go to the next life having completed this by the one last touch of his child taken away by those unseen people leading him to God and paradise.

Originally posted by spyder550
I am an atheist - it makes things much simpler -

- Death has no regrets
- Death leaves no guilt
- Death is absolutely nothing -- not nothingness nothing

Remember how it was before the egg that became you and the sperm met. That is exactly what death will be like. The take away on that is be the best you can be live as much as you can, enjoy life. When it is done it is done as it has been for countless individuals before you and countless after. You won't miss out on anything because of the nothingness thing.

Humans are not wired to easily conceive of life with them not a part of it - that is why all of the afterlife mythologies. I have always taken comfort in the fact that there is nothing after death - it means that there is no fear of death -- thankful for each year but but not afraid that there won't be another.

My bucket list is complete except for one thing. And that may or may not happen.

Thats pretty much how I feel. As I result i'm not afraid of being dead. Although I fear dying.

Children are our afterlife.

Other 'After Life' stories are horse manure, authored by men to get other men to behave in a particular way.

CommandoRenegade
I am slowly dieing from a terminal illness but i don't sit and dwell on it i just live my life like everyone else on this planet i have allot of restrictions on what i can do but i make the best of it..Go live life its to short to sit and dwell on things like death its something thats going to happen to all of us ..When i leave this earth i just want my family to rember the laughs, fun, traditions and tender moments we all had together.. I want to be remembered for a life that was lived to its fullest extent ..
I wrote a thread about this subject a while back and this what i had to say..

I don't believe in this idea of Heaven, and I'm not sure if my church, or any church, still teaches it this way. To be honest, I'm not sure what I believe happens when we die. Something between absolute nothingness and some kind of transfer of energy—not necessarily out-and-out reincarnation, but something along the lines of seeing that spark of energy that we all have, and that I think runs through us all like so many connecting filaments, re-emerge as a flower, tree, fish, bird, or, yes, another human. I think every single thing in our universe shares energy, that we all, and everything, are floating together in an ocean of energy, and that there's a constant re-shaping and re-aligning of that energy, just like the way waves move across the ocean's surface. Things are in constant motion in the ocean, they get jostled and uprooted and re-settled, they die and decompose and "come back", so to speak, by feeding other organisms or by being absorbed by the ocean itself.
peace,sugarcookie1

reply to post by Realm52


I completely agree with you. Sometimes I just look at this world and how extraordinary and how complex it is that maybe there can be something else out there that makes us live on. Perhaps not spiritual but a science we just don't understand yet.

reply to post by sugarcookie1


I hope you overcome your terminal illness soon. But for now, could you explain more on your theory of this mass energy flow between all living things? I just want to know how it works more kind of...