If we resist life are we resisting death? If we resist death are we also resisting life?

Question

I like to ponder things of life, just looking for some different perspectives on these viewpoints.

Answer 1

It's interesting how many people take you literally. Perhaps in a way it's sad. As if all there was to life was just drawing breath. Existing. And no more. If this is the only life you have, then I would say you have no appreciable life to begin with.

Which also answers your question as well. If you resist all the fullness that is life, then your life is meaningless. In that sense, death is also meaningless. So by simply having nothing to lose, you have overcome the loss that is death. In a sense, then, you would seem to be right - resisting life is resisting death.

Likewise, if someone makes the purpose of their life to have it never end and nothing else, we are back in the same quandary. They have thrown out the baby with the bath water, and sacrificed the very thing they should have preserved in a vain attempt to preserve the thing they have sacrificed. So resisting death to the exclusion of life is (perhaps obviously) resisting life as well. Should such a person actually succeed and life forever with absolutely nothing to life for, I would think it to be a punishment far more than a blessing!

There is an important caveat in there, though. I am reminded of Epicurus, who embraced vice by resisting it. Mindless indulgence is more likely to injure than satiate. It seems to me that it is also possible to fight death in order to preserve the fullness of life. Your anti-death efforts will make any particular segment of your life less full than someone who mindlessly indulges in it, but one would expect that in the long run you'd have far, far more life in which to indulge.

Peace.

Answer 2

seems to me resistance is when we resist and to stop resisting is to not resist. Do I accept this or do I reject this? Do I rage against this or do I embrace this? Is this coming at me willy nilly or is there something I'm supposed to learn from it? We don't want to just float down the river of life but at the same time we don't want to force our way through life against the true nature of things. Where does the wisdom to know the difference come from? I believe there is a time when we have to struggle along blindly until we realize there must be something more to it. Then we begin to seek and as we seek we find doors opening to higher understanding, deeper insight and even intuition, the highest knowing. The struggle eases because we become more and more connected with Knowing Itself/God. If you will read the 'Autobiography of a Yogi' you will get a glimpse of what life is like for one who passes through all the states of being without faltering and awakens in the very lap of God. In one way or another that is what we are all out to do. Namaste'

Answer 3

i think if you resist life your going more towards death, and if you resist death your living your life more fully. Thats what i think, because you cant resist something and resist the exact opposite no matter how you look at it. But, then again if your resist death your resisting the proccess of life, so in a way you are resisting life.

Answer 4

I think I know what you mean.
If we resist life, in a sense we resist death because death is a part of life that happens to everyone. If we resist death, in a sense we resist life because we are resisting the completion of life the way it is supposed to happen.

Answer 5

The key is to remember that life is never ending, even after this transitional event called death. I say take death into your arms like a lover, respect and appreciate her and the more eternal life is yours. Once you reach that understanding, life here on earth becomes a breeze!

Answer 6

why do we catgeorize life and death as two separate aspects. life and death work in tandem. i can tell you one thing that resisting life leads you to a situation worse than death. when you stop living you are not deceased just stuck in a phsychadelic transitory world which is dark. life and death are a process......like a chemical reaction....when you stop living youre good as dead to anyone as you are to yourself. you are resisting existing in a world but this is not death ..it is just another aspect ..i have seen many people who cease to live but are not deceased and then those who dont have that choice but rather it is taken away....and they ....well ....die

Answer 7

yes cuz if you resist life then you r automatically dead...You are in death , you can resist death.....................and as far as for the second no...definately no...cuz the only way to resist death is not to resist life.....

Answer 8

How can you resist life short of dying?

Answer 9

We resist death because it helps us survive. I don't see it as a spiritual thing, simple survival

Answer 10

sounds like mental masturbation to me. Just live life and do something other than sitting around asking questions that are meaningless and have NOTHING to do with anything.

Good luck.