Who agrees with me that, from the moment you learn that you're going to Die, it's tough to stay totally Sane?

Question

Forget all the Spiritual stuff for a moment, I'd like to think that I carry on, but it is such a Massive Blow to the Human Ego to know that all We have is "the Moment" & no Guarantee of anything more. What a Bummer!!

Answer 1

I am paraphrasing, but my favorite quote is from Edgar Allen Poe. He said something to the effect that he was insane with painful bouts of sanity throughout his life. And we are all a little insane if we are in any way sane at all. It helps us deal with all the things life throws at us. My mom was a super lady. She was wise and beautiful. And now, when I am older, I remember something she used to say: It's a great life if you don't weaken.
I think she is right.
Sweetie pie, you can't change what will come to us all. And so far, even the richest, the wisest, the strongest of humans has not conquered death in the end. So...we cannot let it monopolize what we have now. Remember the skies, not the cold rain.

Answer 2

This assumes that we are totally sane prior to knowing that we are transient beings, does it not?
I question that.
I question if the world we have made would be in the mess it is were we sane.

The egoic mind by its very nature finds it hard to end anything.

What do we really know about living and life?

We know even less about what death means.

Death may well not be an ending in the absolute sense. So we may be in fear of something we call death through ignorance of its real meaning to life.

Psychologically we carry things over day to day, why? The hurts, the fears, what another has said etc etc. This is what the egoic mind needs to survive.
What then is the ego when yesterday ends and today is totally fresh, new.
What ever is false in us cannot continue without the thinking of it.

As for what is essentially real in us, unless we discover this while living then death will always be a shock and a massive blow.

Answer 3

Yes, you're right. It is something that can cause lots of frustration and even depression. Personal death is something that every individual has to come to terms with in one way or another.

In the past, when organised religion was a more common part of daily life, it was easy to think that, although your body would not be around for ever, some part of you (i.e., your spirit, your karma or your avatar) would.

Now most of us have a post-Darwinian take on the world. That's liberating in someways, but it can be depressing in others.

Some thing that can help could be to try to make your life matter -- to make it count for something. If you confront your individual mortality by trying accomplish things you can be proud of -- that is a kind of immortality. These things can include works of art, charitable acts or even children.

If you don't find comfort in that, try exploring the possibility that you might just continue after physical death. I don't believe it myself, but lots of people do, and there are lots of websites dedicated to this idea on the web.

Really the only way to stay sane after you learn you're going to die is to spend time in the world. This world is an endlessly interesting place -- A place it will take the rest of your life to explore and enjoy. So live more and worry about death less! Easy to say, hard to do. Good Luck!

Answer 4

Yes, I've learned a great deal, and I expect to go on learning from this site. I have changed many of my opinions as a result of this forum, including both religious and political. For one thing, I was calling myself a witch for almost 25 years before I started here. But being here and seeing how much more seriously other witches take it, and knowing I was using the gods and goddesses as myth and metaphor instead of really believing they exist, I declared myself an atheist. I've also changed my politics from Libertarian to Independent. I think this forum does help a person recognize that change is possible, that it is OK to re-evaluate your beliefs whenever they start to contradict one another; that it's not the same as being wishy-washy. In my case, I joined the Ethical Society of St. Louis declaring that I was their "token Libertarian." But being open to the influence of their compassion and intelligent discourse, I gradually realized that Libertarianism is an ideal for after we solve a great many other problems. The reason Ron Paul did not get enough votes was not that his ideas are not good, but that they are decidedly premature. Maybe in a hundred years or so we will have matured to that extent. I've also made some great friends, and learned a great deal of self-respect over the positive feedback I get from a "best answer" and from positive comments that often go along with them.

Answer 5

Well, everyone is going to die eventually, we just don't know how.

But anyway, you were talking about carrying on. Yes of course we continue, there is life after life. It's not just the ego, but I do believe it is the ego that can cause some people to crave their continuence of life.

It doesn't matter too much to us if some people cannot accept that this life on the earth plane is their only life, because they will see one day that they do have another life and can continue to develop. They'll just find the transision difficult.

Don't get too stressed out, just develop yourself spiritually. This isn't the only moment. You chose to be here and you will be reuinted with everyone again.

It might sound a little spooky at first, but it all makes perfect sense if you look into it more.

Answer 6

Not at all, not exactly a fatal ‘blow to human ego’, or to human mind that we cannot cope with. The fact is that the life itself is a reason sound enough against any concept of death that we can conceive. We are alive and our mind knows a good reason in living that we need to find. Superficial mind sees an end, but inner mind or our intrinsic self sees changes, and a continuation after each change.

We can argue that if life is possible before death why life cannot be possible after death? We all know that we are going to die one day but do we really believe that this will be the end? We innately believe, without realising, that somehow we are going to live, live forever. As we can, and like to, foresee things beyond death into life after death. And we can sense, if not to the best of our understanding, the concept of an eternal life. The life to us means a life without death and this is the philosophy that we all live on.

But in this material world we are subjected to the elements of matter: wind, rain, sunshine, seasons, people, things, places and events all influence our state of mind. They all affect us making us feel elated or sad, happy or glum, hopeful or despondent. And this is where we conceive the concept of death, as we know it in our superficial mind, with all the fear associated with it. We regard death to be something horrible and torturous. And this is exactly what it is from a worldly point of view – an absolutely repulsive idea. But this is what we see from this side of life. What lies on the other side is most commonly explained by religion, very effectively and elaborately. Religion provides wonderful ways to live a life that can conquer death. A mind with faith at the centre can see eternity in its grasp and knows thing beyond the reaches of all that can be there is our physical world.

Our physical reality nevertheless is not very compact in terms of what we can understand with reason. There are things that simply cannot be explained with our rational mind alone. There is more to the world than what meets the eye. We know that one day this earthly existence will terminate but we do not know when. There are two things then to dispel the fear of death and keep us from going totally insane. First is the concept of continuation of life that life will go on; and second is the loose anticipation of happenings of the world, or uncertainty of when something will actually happen. This gives our mind just enough space to build expectations that tomorrow will be another day – most probably and hopefully. If I would know the exact time of my demise then the situation will be different. However, in general, uncertainty below and hope above dilute and loosen the grip of the thought of leaving this wonderful world full of lively people and beautiful places.

Answer 7

No. Keeping my faith out of this too, lol
I remember facing my fear of death as a child (thinking, YIKES one day I aint going to be here and yet the world will still go no without me, lol) remember it so clearly. Since then though I have learned that life holds so much to fear, to hurt to give you those blows that can knock you down.

I have astral journeys (body/soul separation experiences) there is no body seen but I feel the wholeness and I experienced a lot and in those journeys; I have grown to believe that the energy the soul is goes on and in death is released from the body, like a bird being freed from a cage.
I have also discovered that life and people within our lives are the sanity testers

Answer 8

what does anyone no about the future two guys go to the doctor ones told hes stuffed the other hes fine they leave the hospital the fine ones creamed by a lorry the stuffed one finds out some dood in belgums found a cure who nows anything the wisest you can get is to no how little you actualy no and all the (spiritual stuff) is the only real sanity there is caus it live in hope and thats a hard place to stay in this world

Answer 9

I used to think about it all the time. The thought overwhelmed me to the point that I became almost socially paralised, I couldn't do anything, not even get a job or get married. I did get a job and get married eventually, but it was a tough ride.

Now I don't worry about it anymore. Forgive the weblink, it's only there if you're curious and want to know more. If not, fair enough...

Answer 10

Hang on... maybe we're all insane to start with and become sane when we find out about death? Just a thought... Either way I've always been happily mad so death doesn't bother me... I wonder if Death really is good at playing chess or if he prefers a nice game of snap. It wouldn't be fair to play Cluedo against him becasue he knows who did it from the begining... See still happily insane :)