I am going through a bit of depression, and death consumes my thoughts. It seems like this past year has been full of death; several people that I once knew are gone. Fortunately, I was not close to any of them, so their deaths affected me only on a symbolic level... the symbolic level being the awareness of death, of what it is, and truly contemplating what death means. It means the end. It means no longer being. It means ceasing to exist. This is not the first time I have thought about death in this way, but, strangely, it is the first time I have ever really FELT the significance of death. And it terrifies me. If you have never feared death you have either not realized what it means, or could mean, or else you have not contemplated its consequences seriously enough.
I have also been thinking about where the concept of an afterlife came from. I believe that the concept of God and the afterlife came moments after man became aware of his existence. When the first person realized, 'I am!' he must have immediately realized: 'One day I will not be...' The concept of God was created to ease fears, to equip us with the courage required to exist day to day, with the threat of death constantly hanging above us. Without the idea of eternal life, we would remain huddled in a corner, afraid to move lest we should trip on a pebble and die.
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2 comments:
May be you would like to read my blog..INTRINSIC FEAR and BEYOND BOUNDARIES...i am sorry if i have entered your REALM!
Of course it is very difficult to talk about death and wonder what i means. Not that I know, but would like to share what I infer.
THE best exploration of what death may mean is from Alan Watts. In his book--hmm cant remember, but he also had a little book published called 'Death' which I used to have but gave to a friend who had lost her mum--he wrote a chapter about death. He said something like : try to imagine going to sleep and never waking up again. It would be like you had never been born......
You'll have to try and find it and read it
It is hard because we dont know what we ARE. What am i? If you ask me what do I say? My name--I have a few, like the one I use for this, and I have others at different forums. my job? what colour, food, music, etc I like? is that 'me'? What are 'you' your likes and dislikes and history, is that 'you'?
Say we have a psychedelic experience and a big part of 'me' 'dies' in death/rebirth and/or 'ego death'. What has happened to that 'me' that died then? Am I not 'still here' but with a different awareness, a different me?
So is that death? I feel it is So hard to talk about because of the impossibiliy of understanding that awareness, can aware again and again, but it wont be 'you' ;)
always refreshed, always flowing, for life to BE there HAS to be death. Death is in life and life is in death
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