If Death is the only real certain thing in your life and the only uncertain thing is when? What is death?

Question

This follows from the last question most people were honest enough to say death is a certainty in their life.

Is death morbid to understand while your living or is that a mind set.
What is death? What is living? Is death the end of life? What is birth(not the understood, biology etc), but birth. Can we end anything? Or are we unaware of the danger of attachment.

Answer 1

What is dying? When it comes to this Q. I always have 2 ans.
1 is physical dying due to (misfortune,sickness, and old age)
2 is psychological dying the dissolution of the self or selfishness (free will) because of understanding the truth of its existence..
I know u are not interested on the physical aspect.
Psychological dea...th is the hardest for us to achieve.
This idea of the "I" that is important is very real to our consciousness (I'm not saying it isn't).
The "I" that says what will happen to my achievements,my dreams , my love, my status, my goal, my family, my identity etc. This"me" is the one afraid to die or becomes nothing because he is always attached to his acquisitions, if all his acquisitions is gone the "I" is nothing,a Fact!!
Being nothing is morbid to the "I".

When the "me" comes to a point that he understood (beyond any doubt) that whatever he does are limitations and attachments( true life is unlimited) then the true silence will manifest in his being( he is no longer assertive, the "I" is silent and observation begins) -the real birth of intelligence, that's the ending of "me".

Answer 2

Death, mortality, the fear of non-being are the source of the instinct for self-preservation, which is the inclination to sin. Pelagians denied this principle, and accepted a form of religion similar to what you have just described. The problem is that 1) If death is natural part of life, then we remove both the cause and effect of sin, and with it the need for grace. That is why the Pelagians believed that grace was not necessary either to salvation or good works. The death and resurrection of Christ is then a moot point - it becomes nothing more than an example for us to follow. This doesn't mean that we should fear death; quite the contrary. We should accept death as the unnatural event that it actually is, but maintain a firm hope in the immortality of the soul and the future resurrection of the body.

Answer 3

What is death?
Shuffling off this mortal coil.

What is living?
It depends on what part of life you are discussing -- temporal or eternal.

Is death the end of life?
Death is the end of temporal life and the beginning of eternal life for the soul.

What is birth(not the understood, biology etc), but birth.
Birth is the emergence of a soul within a body into the temporal world.

Can we end anything?
Only God can put an end to a soul. However, it can also be said that death is the end to the event called birth.

Or are we unaware of the danger of attachment.
That is the truest form of love and bravery. Knowing that attachment will eventually lead to parting in this temporal world and reunion in the eternal world.

Answer 4

Some interesting answers here.
I think death is almost certainly the end of everything. But whether my death will just be the end of everything for me or of everything for everyone I do not know. It is a bit like the old saying about the tree falling in the wood but with no-one around, does it still make a noise.
I know I am capable of thought but have no proof that anyone else is or even if anyone else actually exists outside my own brain.
You have given me a headache now. I have to go lie down in a darkened room, which may or may not exist.

Answer 5

You have to die, that is why it is certain. Not the date but the action. Death is the end of the growth of life, physical and mental. The end of you as a being but never as a memory. Living is not as bunt as death. Living is the time between birth and death, the growth of you a human being. There is so much to how you live your life that it is hard to explain living. Birth is your introduction into life and the beginning of living. Can we end anything, no. You live forever in someone your family line and blood, memories of you, the photos, your debts, your left inheritances, records of you. You are always here.

Answer 6

Deatth is simply a mind made illusion. Yes the form does die but consciousness, which is the true one life and which is only one never dies.

The purpose of life is to bring consciousness into the world.

The statement that there is a 'you' and a 'me' is an illusion. There is just the great entity or one life which is called consciousness and it lurks like a growing beast in all corners of the universe and takes form in many ways. The illusion of 'you' and 'me', of seperatedness is also the cause of all conflict in the world. People do not realise that we are actually 'one'

Therefore you are just consciousness brought into form which is your forms ultimate purpose.

When your form dies, consciousness lives on therefore death is an illusion.

Consciousness has existed since time began but has only recently taken shape through form, why? That is the ultimate question, mystery which means that life is not black and white.

Answer 7

Physical death is fairly certain. It's time is uncertain. Certainly it is not now.
The only thing that is truly certain is now. And what do you find? Not your death I expect, but your living prescence.
Death is not experienced, it is a concept withing the mind of the living. Only life is experienced.
It is not morbid to accept the physical certainty of death, it is essential in order to live in truth in the present. It is morbid to shun the truth of death and life in fear.
Birth is the physical manifestation of your soul, to act out your karmas.
The terror we feel when we witness accidents is simply touching the truth of physical mortality. Mostly we live as if we are immortal. When we transcend this fear, we realise our deepest truth is eternal.
It sounds to me as if you would be interested to read the Buddhist model of birth and death. It is very helpful.

Answer 8

Death is Death.

Answer 9

An inevitable certainty, a reason for living, if we were never to die, imagine the amount of things in ours lives we would not do, the potential we would not fill, the options we would never take. the relationships we would not try to get involved in. Death is a certainty that ensures we live, and the incertainty of when it will happen is the reason we try so hard to live everyday as if it is our last. Just a random thought for you to ponder.

Answer 10

I believe that 'death' is when our mind is no longer in control of the body as opposed to the biological expiration of the body. If as individuals we are aware enough to know we are 'alive' then death is the unawareness of life.

As far as birth goes, your question appears to be seperating the biological birth to something more complex, that is to say, the awareness of life. Who knows when this occurs as learning (and possibly the awareness of life) occurs at a very early age.