Do you fear death?
- Thread starter freekundli
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It is very difficult in my understanding to truly live in the moment as you describe. It more like an ideal to me than actuality. Its true we should not hope to reach a destination and anticipate what come next, but as humans this is very hard to do.
It was something I struggled with for years, especially since I am big on planning (and I still am when it comes to my career and my children) ... but I reached a point where I was utterly broken, where I had to give up every dream and hope for the future that I'd ever had, and it was oddly freeing. It was only once I lost the future that I learned I didn't need it live.
Just like it was only when I lost my brother (the person I loved most in the world) that I learned death isn't something for me to fear.
I honestly envy people who can live for a destination and the hope of more, it seems like there is more to life for them ... but ultimately we can't help but be who we are.
Doesn't this desire ultimately lead to suffering, according to Buddhist philosophy? If this is true we should pity these people and not envy them.
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- Aug 21, 2015
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A fate worse than death?
Alzheimers: Losing my mind, memories and 'self' is scarier than dying.
Living a life without joy. Cultivating negativity is scarier than dying.
Alzheimers: Losing my mind, memories and 'self' is scarier than dying.
Living a life without joy. Cultivating negativity is scarier than dying.
Pity is also discouraged...I'm far from enlightened and no longer actively practice Buddhism...in part because I do not want to surrender the suffering entirely. It is familiar and comfortable and rather cathartic in small doses.
It is also far easier to practice Buddhism in principle and in the vacuum of the internet. Real life has a way of testing us all, and often in the face of those trials all theory is thrown out the window and our instinct kicks in. It is too easy for me to forget sometimes that there are people with paths and hurts behind the words on the screen, and rational theories do little to comfort.
Lazarus of Bethany, also known as Saint Lazarus or Lazarus of the Four Days, is the subject of a prominent miracle of Jesus in the Gospel of John, in which Jesus restores him to life four days after his death.
Lazarus: A guy who Jesus resurrects from the dead
@Jet I agree that Buddhism is a difficult and challenging philosophy I think. To tear yourself from pity, desire, love, almost all emotions really (except compassion I suppose) cannot be easy. The achievement of enlightenment sounds so difficult, almost unattainable without superhuman effort. Its still interesting to me, however. Maybe its wrong to focus on the goal of reaching enlightenment and more correct to focus on the journey to get there. For a Western man trained to compete, to win and lose, this is difficult and so ingrained in me I don't even know I am doing it.
@Jet I agree that Buddhism is a difficult and challenging philosophy I think. To tear yourself from pity, desire, love, almost all emotions really (except compassion I suppose) cannot be easy. The achievement of enlightenment sounds so difficult, almost unattainable without superhuman effort. Its still interesting to me, however. Maybe its wrong to focus on the goal of reaching enlightenment and more correct to focus on the journey to get there. For a Western man trained to compete, to win and lose, this is difficult and so ingrained in me I don't even know I am doing it.
It might sound crazy, but it inspires me. In western world we associate death with so many gloomy images, tragedies and sadness, but when you look deeper you can find that death is not a bad thing. Why?
when you go to work do you have a fear? No? but work is a change, nothing else. So is death, that's just a change. I think people fear it because they think that it will be painful and empty, but it can only end up in two ways:
1. Nothing will happen.
2. you will experience afterlife.
If there's an afterlife - fantastic!
if there's nothing - fantastic! You will be dead, so nothing will exist for you, not even time. An eternity will pass like a second.
There's a saying: " We're all going to die, all of us, what a circus! That alone should make us love each other but it doesn't. We are terrorized and flattened by trivialities, we are eaten up by nothing."
Unless you are a sinful heathen doomed to spend eternity in the fiery pits of hell...
In the light of all the death I've seen this year, I realize the only thing I would be worried about is leaving my family with any kind of crippling debt or some complicated estate to figure out amongst themselves. I fear dying before I have a chance to get that organized for them and everything paid off.
The other thing I fear is dying in any kind of traumatizing way. Not for my sake, but again, for my family's sake.
Otherwise, I think I'd actually welcome it.
Not that anyone needs to be concerned. Just saying.
The other thing I fear is dying in any kind of traumatizing way. Not for my sake, but again, for my family's sake.
Otherwise, I think I'd actually welcome it.
Not that anyone needs to be concerned. Just saying.
Yes. I do not hunk I old care to live for an eternity, it must be exhausting! I hope that when I die it is a welcome change.
I fear the pain associated with death, not death itself. True death does not exist, regardless of what you believe in. Nothing dies, it is only absorbed by everything else.
Well, that accounts for the physical side of things. That's it, right?
We die, our body is absorbed by the Earth, and there is nothing. Right?
I don't believe so. I believe that a long time ago, a humble carpenter, a Holy man, the divine manifested in the flesh, conquered spiritual death. And with that, all of humanity might be able to have a taste of life.
John 3:16
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Well, that accounts for the physical side of things. That's it, right?
We die, our body is absorbed by the Earth, and there is nothing. Right?
I don't believe so. I believe that a long time ago, a humble carpenter, a Holy man, the divine manifested in the flesh, conquered spiritual death. And with that, all of humanity might be able to have a taste of life.
John 3:16
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
