After about a year of depression and months of existential crisis, I am finally starting to accept my death. I used to try and soothe myself into believing that Life will go on after this life, but the cold truth is once I'm dead, I'm dead and there is no way around this. Even if we can make a human being immortal we still will die one day because the universe will eventually come to an end. I am starting to see that maybe it's not so bad to die at all. Doesnt it sound very blissful to leave all of the stress and pain of life behind into a state of eternal rest?

It's seriously a good place to be, content with the path you're treading. You can't pull and strings to change the final outcome so consciously letting go can be very freeing?

Now then, to whom are you leaving your .223 ammo?

Getting too old to chase cats?

At shul today rabbi was speaking about how the Christian churches spend an inordinate amount of their time focusing on death and the afterlife.

In Judaism it is quite the opposite. It focuses on the LIVING. Live this life so well you don't need to worry what comes after, for that will take care of itself.

Sela ve. :)

Like you, as I get older find myself wondering more about dying and mortality. Embracing the mystery is good. We don't need all the answers, and it really is a mystery what comes next.

What if nothing comes next?

Is that one of the items on your options list?

That's subject to the mysterious and unknown. We really don't know. In Judaism it's believed there is an afterlife, but that isn't what Jewish beliefs focuses on. They don't dwell on that, because it isn't Jewish to do so.

Living and embracing life with all its mystery and beauty is the challenge in Judaism.

And paradox.

Why are so many people eager to say they do know?

I understand *hoping* there is something, but isn't the amount of money spent on this hope amazing?

The funerary industry depends on this *hope*! Those truly believing that death is the end ought not to be at all concerned about what happens to the husks of former human beings.

the problem is, not one person alive today knows for sure what happens after we die. i'm not afraid of dying, it actually is quite comforting to me..... at times. but the unknowns can be scary. are we judged for our lives? did we live up to our potential? will we be punished?

the thing i seek most in life, day to day, is peace of mind

i am scared to death(no pun intended) that punishment will be pr could be some sort of mental anguish

I've wondered that too, not living up to our potential.

That gets back to are we ever perfect enough? Or good enough? Measure up to someone else's expectations? Or set ourselves up for failure?

I've resigned myself to accepting I'm no Mother Theresa. I'm not a saint, not a terrible person, but I am somewhere in between as I try to manage my own life - and live one day at a time trying to make the world a little better by my having been here. Whether it makes any difference 100 years from now, who cares?

I can matter today, and eternity is now.

This is a very tender topic for me. Having to deal with 5 family deaths in the last 5 years has been an eye opener for me. Like you, Ballaboy, I am starting to accept death for what it is; The End of Living. I don't fear death anymore, it is just a phase I will go through. The only difference is that when it's over, it's over.

To quote Jim Jefferies; "I won't even know I'm dead, because I'll be fukin dead." He has a skit on U tube that I watch frequently and enjoy every time.

Before my Pop died I had a discussion with him about all of the crap he had in his house. Mom was a horder of sorts and when she died he cherished her crap, that was the source of our conversation. He said that everything in his house had a story and it needed to be preserved. In his passing, all of this "cherished stuff" was now "crap".

When my wife passed away, it was sad, but what was important to her was now unimportant to her or anyone. The sacred boxes of church magazines, lesson aids, garments, temple clothes, books, was all junk to me now. I don't have anything now that I cherish and wish to pass onto the next person.

When my time comes, and it will, I hope I have the dignity to sit back and wait. I know I'm not going anywhere glorious. I'm not going to dwell with a Kind and Loving Prick who never acknowledged me when I was alive. I just not going to be here anymore, simple as that.

When people talk of eternity, they don't consider now as part of it (it seems to me.)

What if now is eternity? What if Mormon's are locked into meetings and struggles for impossible perfection and smelly churches for eternity?

Not sure I expressed it right.

I'm getting rid of my personal memorabilia (I'm a hoarder so I have a lot!) in preparation for my death. I've thought so much about this I'm starting a new thread...

I'm focused totally on living the time I have left now that I'm well into my seventh decade. I've made as many plans for my demise as I can.

Whatever happens when we die, it's always been the same and the same for everyone -- seems only reasonable and rational.
I'm of the opinion that our core energy essence cannot be destroyed, but changed and I find comfort in that, especially when I have reason to believe I have received messages from my deceased loved ones that I cannot explain.

SusieQ#1 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> I'm of the opinion that our core energy essence
> cannot be destroyed, but changed and I find
> comfort in that, especially when I have reason to
> believe I have received messages from my deceased
> loved ones that I cannot explain.


Me too, Susie.

They've been just as real as any communication between 'earthlings.'

And more personalized. ;-)

Not that it makes me more eager to crossing over. But it lessens my fear and anxiety for when that time comes, as I tend to view it as a joyous event and reunion with loved ones who're already there.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/09/2016 08:18PM by Amyjo.

Amyjo

Thanks for your comments.

Oh yes. These messages are a great comfort and assure me that I am loved and cared about - I am not the only one in the family either that gets messages! No mistake. Stuff happens! It's nice not to be concerned about the end of my earth life. Just curious. What is going to take me out?
My husband had a joke about that: He said he'd be hit by a Budweiser Beer Truck (he never drank!) crossing the street on Sunday on the way home from church! :-) (Didn't happen, of course, but it was his little joke!)

I would also say that we don't know for sure what happens after death.

I still think it's kind of strange how we even exist at all and the whole process that leads to a new life being born. lol

I look back at history and wonder about all those people who lived and died prior and that my own ancestry is their among them as well as everyone else's.

It's all a mystery to me. To conclude religions are just man made and that the bible is not the word of any supernatural sky being has been the most liberating event for me.


I sometimes envy those deluded enough to think they are in 'The Truth' even though I know they are just in 'A Lie'. If there is a supernatural creator I'm absolutely certain it hasn't communicated with it's creation yet and that is a slight concern to me.

Maybe we do have some kind of Spirit/Soul additionally to our 'organic fleshly matter' structure that moves on to another place.


My real concern of this world is some of the really nasty cruel humans that think nothing to defrauding, hurting or killing another person as if their lives don't matter.

Right there with you Ballaboy. From the dust we have come and shall return likewise.

When the heart stops beating we cease to be.

It takes time and real effort to internalize this thought. Most all of us on this board have had such a deep brainwashing that it becomes extremely hard to divorce ourselves from the notion of some sort of existence beyond death. I know people that simply refuse to think about it. They simply haven't cultivated the capacity to accept the reality and finality of death.

It is the thought of 'something better' after we die that keeps many people I know from severe depression. Its their placebo that helps them face another day. And this, in and of itself, is a sad way to live - really.

The question then becomes - once you realize that death is the ultimate destination how does this change your perception of your life? For some people I know, this realization has caused them to slip deeper into despair. Their understanding of who they are is shattered and they feel alone and 'stranded' if you will. However, for others, the realization that our existence is finite becomes sort of a liberator. Life becomes much more than just 'procedural' rather it spurs discovery and growth.

This life is about us - our species - and the other mammals, etc. that populate our planet. What we see around us is all we have. So perhaps our 'religion' can become these things. I feel very moved when I gaze upon a beautiful sunset over Carmel Canyon here in Utah. I can't explain my origins nor do I want to try because the simple answer is we DON'T know. Science has certainly taught us some things - but the whole story is billions of years in the making.

So let's all enjoy what we have around us and make the most of our lives. Each of us still has a purpose - we aren't divine - but we certainly are a special and important part of the echo-sphere we call earth.

PURPOSE: the reason for which something is done or created or for which something exists.


"If we have any purpose, beyond the imperative given us by nature to reproduce, we have to find it for ourselves, and as such, the selection we each make ought not to be something others could or should judge."
--Judic West; excerpt from his proposal to Aeiou West, mother of empires.

After I walked away from the cult I made a decision that I would devote my time and energy to doing a good job of it in this temporal life, be a good husband, father, friend and neighbor. Anything past that I have no control of so it's not worth wasting one second of my time on.

RB (AKA BC--my alter ego/hideout name)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/09/2016 06:34PM by Lethbridge Reprobate.

If we are no more than organized matter and energy, then death is probably the end of us. Our matter and energy will transfer to another form because those things can neither be created or destroyed - so we're told - but our self, or in this case, our brain will be gone.

But I think if we are matter, energy, plus some sort of unique entity or spirit that ALSO can not be created or destroyed, then MAYBE we continue on when our unique entity joins with new matter/energy.

But of course, I can't know this to be true. Just my thoughts. I mainly just try to think of a SIMPLE solution. No high courts, complicated rules or getting your just desserts from a previous life. Just a continuous flow of life.

In either case, however, you have no memories of your past, so they aren't all that much different. The second scenario just FEELS better because it is a type of survival.

I'm not looking FORWARD to it per se, but I am looking forward to learning the truth.

I'm hoping for that one split second that I can say "Ha!, bitches I told yo....."

Hahaha same here!

Don't dwell on something that you cannot control. Just enjoy every day of your life to the best of your ability. What happens after is beyond your control. There's no point in ruining today over something that may happen decades from now.

http://marklindner.info/writings/Epicurus.htm



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/09/2016 07:13PM by axeldc.

I agree. Death will be a rest...I don't fear it, either.

Eckhart Tolling
Being is the eternal, ever present life beyond the myriad forms of life which are subject to birth and death.However, not only is it beyond, it is also deep within each form as the innermost, invisible and indestructible essence of who we are.This means that it accessible to us now as our deepest self, our true nature.
This comes from page 13 of the "Power Of Now".

I don't believe in linear time anymore. I mean it's a useful illusion, but life is a resonance with all living things (including "past" and "future" versions of you) through the eternal medium of timespace, perhaps what the Chinese call the Tao. I think the ego, the imagination of the self, continues on after death so one way or another it has to be reconciled with the eternal self. Even if that requires rebirth.

Death is a drastic change, I'm sure. No wonder people fear it. It's probably not useful to understand it. It's better to rip off the band-aid fast.

The idea of "Now" is very useful because the way time really is, Now is the reality of being. Not Later as certain religious idiots would have you believe. Now is it. Live now.

I might add that TSCC is quite soul-crushing. Now is the time, you are the gold, and God is all you and all love. TSCC's attitude is like the Marshal Tucker Band song. "And there's fire on the mountain, lightnin' in the air. Gold in them hills and it's waitin' for me there."



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/09/2016 09:48PM by bradley.

I don't find death frightening. The hard part of death is for the living, to have to go on missing the person you loved. For the dead one, you're dead, that's it and there is no more.

I certainly can understand the fear of a painful or prolonged death. My father is in a nursing home. He's got Alzheimers, he's in pain a fair amount of time and he can't be taken care of at home. He is miserable there and frequently expresses that he wishes to be dead. Now that kind of existence is something to be feared, the being dead not so much.

I don't see it as being any different that before you're born.

You are right that no one knows about the after life for sure. I have had many experiences and believe I know but that 'for sure' is a tough one for me.

However, logically if you believe your life would be better by believing then believe. If you believe your life would be better by not believing then don't believe.

I believe it is a little comforting to me to know or believe based on my "experiences" but by all means I agree you should make the most out of life now.

I personally believe I have communicated with many past relatives, important people, and spirit guides. These experiences came about by studying intuition, mediumship and channeling. Also, by doing guided meditations from the internet.

I personally believe I have had and seen glimpses of past lives so reincarnation exists. These were experienced through guided meditations on the internet.

My advice is if you really want to have some experiences that I believe are better than just 'guessing what is true' they are available. Also, you could get past life regression analysis or medium reading ----- available even in Utah if you want to pay for it.

We were just as dead before we were born....it wasn't a problem then was it? Why should it be one now?