Do You Fear Death?

I thought this was pretty interesting. Post your thoughts!

Dying is horrifying to us on many levels. It is a fearful prospect to suffer intense physical pain, and since we have all felt it, our minds recoil from experiencing more. The prospect of being annihilated, of disappearing into the void as experience comes to an end, creates perhaps the deepest fear.

In response, people try to escape awareness of mortality in all the ways we’ve become familiar with, from substance abuse to our culture’s endless fascination with youth and beauty.

Death as a fact becomes less brutal if you can accept that it is a necessary part of life. The universe recycles everything in the never-ending flow of time. The atoms that make up your body have found a temporary shelter only. Like birds of passage they are always in flight.

With your next breath you will take in several billion molecules of air once breathed by Buddha or Jesus, and when you exhale you will send molecules of air to be breathed tomorrow by people in China.

Every other atom of your body is borrowed and must be repaid to the cosmos. The reason that the ancient Indians worshipped Shiva, the god of death and dissolution, wasn’t out of fear alone, or a desire to placate him. The traditions of wisdom looked at nature and saw in its design creation and dissolution, the one inseparable from the other.

At the deepest level, everyone is borrowing and repaying all the time. The scene isn’t one of perpetual death but of life circulating within itself. When you realize how intimately connected we all are, the reality that life is a common possession, more like an eco-system than like a new car, hits home. Like my heart and my breathing, my mind is recirculating images and feelings that are shared with millions of other people. Without death, this renewal would not be possible.

Adapted from The Deeper Wound: Recovering the Soul from Fear and Suffering, by Deepak Chopra (Harmony Books, 2001).

The only thing I'd probably regret about death is being unable to see how things evolve. I always wonder what life was like during a certain era, be it 20 years ago, 50 or 2,000 years ago. It's fascinating beyond words. I even wonder what things will be like, say 10-20 years down the road: what type of person I'll be (if I'm fortunate enough to live that long), family, pop culture, etc.

So, to answer the question, not really because I know it's inevitable: the time will eventually come where I'll have to pack my bags and say goodbye to life on earth.

No. If I'm afraid of dying, I'll be afraid to live.

Yes and No, Yes because it has this whole......"what's next" complex. I mean, you die and then what? You know?


And No because I know I won't reach pass 50 or even maybe 45. That's just my thought though. Something i feel.

I'm not scared of dying, I'm just scared of how I will die.

Its scary to think that you could be walking randomly through a busy crowd in a shopping center, and get stabbed just like that and die, with no control over anything. Its happened to someone I know's brother.

^ That.

I think the way you die is what is scary not that you are going to die.
Hopefully it isn't something horrible..

Both yes and no.

Yes- if i die at at certain age like 40 and under, i wont be able to see everything i want to see and experience it. And the fact that cancer pretty much runs in the family and lost a large amount of family members.

No-I would have experienced things and hope things are for the better as life goes on.

Hopefully the recession will end between now and then.

No, I fear having a slow agonizing death.

Suck My COCKINESS! wrote:

No, I fear having a slow agonizing death.

IKR. I'd rather die upon impact than be tortured.

yes.

yes but I don't let fear consume me.

Yes and No, simply because i just want to know what it's like to be dead. BUT i don't see myself living past an old age....so not to scare of it, just scared of what will happen after i guess....since it's like a mystery.

I'm more afraid of what happens afterwards? If there is an afterlife, did I pick the right religion? Am I getting in? Is there nothing? It's very complex.

Other than that, I try to enjoy life, because you never know.