We're All Going to Die

[OP1]

It is an iron law. There is general agreement about this.

Given that your eventual death is certain, how should life be lived? Is the moment of death especially important, and is it something we should prepare for?

Hindus and Buddhists attach particular importance to the moment of death, as it is seen as critical segue to either our next incarnation, or possibly enlightenment. Doing some good deeds, then remembering them as you die, or more generally developing good habits to prepare for the moment are a couple of pieces of advice that I've heard.

The Dalai Lama advises that we try to spend that moment in calm acceptance.

What do you think?

[Audiogen]

It is an iron law. There is general agreement about this.

Given that your eventual death is certain, how should life be lived?

Authentically

Is the moment of death especially important, and is it something we should prepare for?
Hindus and Buddhists attach particular importance to the moment of death, as it is seen as critical segue to either our next incarnation, or possibly enlightenment. Doing some good deeds, then remembering them as you die, or more generally developing good habits to prepare for the moment are a couple of pieces of advice that I've heard.

The Dalai Lama advises that we try to spend that moment in calm acceptance.

What do you think?

I'm a physicalist, I believe mind is an emergent property of the brain, therefore death is essentially lights out. However, I do think the Dalai Lama's advice of calm acceptance is a good approach, regardless if our minds turn off at death or transcend the body to enlightenment.

When you consider all the potential experiences, knowledge and wisdom you can accumulate throughout life, I would say death is not important. It is the moment where you lose all that is important in the physical realm. Due to the similarity of Near Death Experiences, I think psychedelics have taken me as close to the experience of dying as I care to experience with intent. If actual dying/death is anything like that, I'm not sure what preparing for the moment of death means.

[Coldwater]

We're all Going to Die?

Well I'm not too sure about that

About a year ago i was laying in bed when I felt every molecule in my body dissolve and the only thing that remained was my consciousness.

When I opened my eyes I was whole again but I intrinsically knew I had somehow died and reconstituted again.

[Jessica]

I like this post.

[OP1]

You did die though, it's just that you also lived to tell about it.

[Coldwater]

Despite what happened there were no profound changes or sudden insight into why we're here which is somewhat of a bummer

[Meliai]

I think the best way to live life is as if you are always just on the brink of death. Just ferociously bite into life as if death is going to come rip it from your clutches at any moment

[OP1]

Why?

[Jessica]

I think the best way to live life is as if you are invincible. Ferociously bite into life as if there is zero chance it will ever poison you.

[Meliai]

WELL THEN

[OP1]

Why?

[Jessica]

Meliai ;-D

OP1 i was mostly just being silly and taking the opposite stance from Mel because it was funny. i think both, ultimately, mean the same thing in practise. Which is the well-known advice of "be fully in the moment; it's all that is real"

[Vanilla Gorilla]

[Verbe]

Is there anything stronger than valium? cause I'm pretty sure you can just medicate yourself to not give a shit like I do

[mallyboppa]

Lol I used to love Valium and Tuinol back in the day

[OP1]

Authentically

What does it mean to live authentically?

[Undies]

It is an iron law. There is general agreement about this.

i don't like this law and i refuse to agree to it

Given that your eventual death is certain, how should life be lived? Is the moment of death especially important, and is it something we should prepare for?

Hindus and Buddhists attach particular importance to the moment of death, as it is seen as critical segue to either our next incarnation, or possibly enlightenment. Doing some good deeds, then remembering them as you die, or more generally developing good habits to prepare for the moment are a couple of pieces of advice that I've heard.

The Dalai Lama advises that we try to spend that moment in calm acceptance.

What do you think?

i think hindus and buddhists are being kind of dumb here. you can't prepare for the moment of death, unless you somehow know when and how you're going to die. what happens if you spend your entire life getting ready for that dying moment, then you die in your sleep? or get shot in the back of the head without warning? or any number of other ways to die without having a chance for quiet reflection?

not that you shouldn't try to live life in a way that you'll have good thoughts if you have that kind of death, but it seems silly to prioritize your last few minutes over the 80 some years on average leading up to those minutes.

really, i'm not even sure if death is relevant in this question. you should try to live your life in your ideal way, whether that life is 6 years or the rest of eternity.

[Audiogen]

What does it mean to live authentically?

This is going to sound like a Hallmark card but basically love, learn, and grow with intent. The practices detailed in the Noble Eightfold Path could be applied to live authentically.


I'm not suggesting I have achieved living this way myself but I took your question to mean as an ideal.

[OP1]

That's ok. The answers don't have to fit any format .

[Jessica]

i don't like this law and i refuse to agree to it

same. only betas agree to the inevitability of death.

[Meliai]

This quote reminded me of this thread. Ol' Pablo always gets it right

[OP1]

what happens if you spend your entire life getting ready for that dying moment, then you die in your sleep? or get shot in the back of the head without warning? or any number of other ways to die without having a chance for quiet reflection?

I'm not sure of the answer to the question of sudden death. It could be that we actually have time to reflect even if death is sudden or while we are unconscious. There are people who have legally died (and later revived) while under anesthesia on an operating table, yet also claim to have memories of watching the operation take place from a perspective floating above it. So maybe it's something like that.

In the the Bardo Thol (the title is commonly translated as "The Tibetan Book of the Dead"), there is a soul that remains with the body for a short time after death. During this time a lama might give guidance to the deceased, who can still hear.

Or maybe one would claim that if you died without the opportunity to reflect, it means not getting that opportunity comes from your karma.

I'm not saying it is so, I'm just trying to offer what might be the answer from this perspective.

Allegedly, in the Bhagavad Gita it is stated:

“For whatever objects a man thinks of at the final moment, when he leaves the body- that alone does he attain"

So even if there is no conscious reflection, the effect is still supposed to happen

i think hindus and buddhists are being kind of dumb here. you can't prepare for the moment of death, unless you somehow know when and how you're going to die.

Habits that one develops in life are the primary method of preparation. So if you are always doing virtuous things and having virtuous thoughts, this would increase the odds that you would have good thoughts at the moment of death, even if it arrived suddenly.

If one has time to reflect as one dies, then perhaps considering this moment in advance would at the very least make it less shocking, and perhaps make it easier to be calm.

it seems silly to prioritize your last few minutes over the 80 some years on average leading up to those minutes.

I'm not sure that all moments can be measured in a quantitative way. It seems at least plausible the one's final moment would be so intense as to have far greater importance than more ordinary times. Even if it is not true that the last moment is the gateway to the next incarnation, the final moment may have particular value that makes it worth considering.

[Tropical Breeze]

It is an iron law. There is general agreement about this.

Given that your eventual death is certain, how should life be lived?

I'm not one to try to dictate how others should live but at times i do wish people lived with greater awareness, honesty, and displayed more empathy. I feel that would bring less violence and resentment amongst those who differ.

Is the moment of death especially important, and is it something we should prepare for?

Its up to the individual. To you, Is preparing for the moment of death different from living as if you are dying? The former seems to be in the furure while the latter is more present. Though i don't think anyone should live as if its your last day. Its unrealistic and i naturally assume one is deceiving themself if they say that is what they do. Otherwise, why show up to work. Live as if you are dying would be far more realistic. Perhaps measure your life in months if you feel it would enhance your life.

The Dalai Lama advises that we try to spend that moment in calm acceptance.

What do you think?

Nothing. Whatever comes naturally to you in that moment.

[neonspectraltoast]

Even if the brain did, alone, generate conscious awareness (which, conservatively, can't be so) it wouldn't speak to how knowledge of one's existence relates to environment. It is intertwined with time. That knowledge is embedded in the scheme of the profoundly Real.

We are transmutable energy in a sea of energy. Yes, our identities are mostly illusory, for we are one, departed, but that isn't a bad thing where survival is concerned. The greatest piece of information is our identity, and the universe is notoriously unfrivolous with information.

We just think about this all in ridiculously myopic, human terms.

So no, I don't think death as in "lack of awareness" is inevitable. I agree with Albert Einstein that past, present, and future coexist simultaneously under an umbrella of an inspired "Now." But the truth lies beyond what we can fathom. I am a big believer in the notion that reality is much more bizarre in actuality than the minutiae of our vain existences.

The only way to live is how anyone does, and God willing that will always be chaotic.

Still, there is no telling beyond these bodies of ours, which are already out of their respective minds. People are generally disloyal to truth, in so far as they never have had such a loyalty and wouldn't know where it begins or ends. Which is why they possess no gnosis. They reject it outright, and favoritism tends towards humanity, but such is love. Truth doesn't care; it isn't threatened.

Still, I am fond of Andy.

Eternity slipping away into a distorted, deformed fantasy is much scarier than outright death, but so is the idea that the Earth could spontaneously fall out of orbit. I think things have always just worked out in a proper manner.