is the fear of nothingness logically absurd?....do you think some people see death as being alone in the....?

Question

....dark forever?...but...
arent you putting yourself in the shoes of a spectator, viewing your circumstance as this lonely dot in the middle of nothing?

who is this "you", thats able to be aware of the non existant you!

either there is a "you" and so by definition..not nothing.....

or....there IS nothing...and therefor no YOU anywhere to be found....that could possibly worry about anything whatsoever!

Answer 1

In the beginning there was 'nothing'. In the end there will be 'nothing'. The Zen folks profess motivation to return to 'nothing' in order to be enlightened.

So... I'm going with the 'nothing' over 'you' concept. Seems most reasonable!

Answer 2

I see your point. I will be brief as the words come, then will try to expand to the extent that I am able to.

Nothingness is everything.

'Nothingness' with a capital N: It is not then nothing, in the sense of 'nothing', non-existence, a limitess expanse of voidness. It is the Infinity both in space and time. We could say 'The All' instead, but that will most likely be taken as the all that is manifest, that has form, the totality of everything visible or perceivable. This manifest all, itself infinite, is contained within infinite Space. This is the Nothingness, because formless itself, it contains the formlessness of all that takes, has taken or will take form (unmainfest nature, in germ form, the immaterial which transforms itself into, say, a tree),that which remains forever formless(conciousness), as well as all that has form (mainifest nature, all manifestation whatsoever). To keep the example of the tree, then, the Nothingness contains the tree, the would-be tree, and the consciousness that informs both.

The 'I' that is aware of the non-existent 'I' ('unreal' rather ) is a part of that which, as such, remains forever formless, but takes on form after form - all these forms themselves emerging from that formless which takes form. Everything goes, periodically and ultimately, back to the Nothingness - the consciousness(es) and the various forms.

Going back to the 'I' that you call 'non-existent'' I call 'unreal' instead, because though the body appears and disappears like a cloud (that is, the form, like all forms, is impermanent) yet in essence it is part of that eternal formless that is forever transforming itself into form.

I am not worried at all that I become non-existent, because this is impossible. Sometimes I find myself wishing it were possible, though.

Answer 3

Hello,

(ANS) Having been confronted and faced the void, the abyss on several occasions in my life (both metaphorically & actually) I would say that fear is definitely an appropriate reaction.

But what your talking about here is slightly different I would suggest, your talking about ego death, the fear that the ego itself will cease to exist. Its ego death that seems much more fearful than bodily death. Obviously the two are interconnected though.

**The discussion as to who or what is observing the death experience is an utter waste of time, because you cannot know this until you yourself die and then you will know from direct experience of that process. Anything else is just abstraction or intellectual speculation. Just like no religion can answer this question either, religions tells lies about death because people fear ego death so much & thoughts of going the heaven or paradise are nothing more than comfort blankets to soften the impact of reality.

Ivan

Answer 4

Well, I quite agree with the absurdity of seeing death as "Living forever in the dark".

But I suspect this is more of a child's misconception, than typical belief among adults.

The most fundamental nature of life is to struggle for continued existence.

What we typically & appropriately fear is BECOMING nothing, NOT existing as nothing

The fear of death, is really the fear of dying.

JFTR. Fear is like pain. It's here to keep you out of trouble.
It's only a bad thing when you have it for no good reason.

Answer 5

I hope that you are not just playing with words and big sensational thoughts, and that that you are seriously in a state of wonder, which if you are then, here is my response to your question, there however would be no answer to what you have asked.

I first begin with nothing. It has been proved by the works of greatest physicists that there in existence, alongside the normal matter, is anti-matter composed of particles totally opposite in characteristic to the ones we find constituents in normal matter. The solid proof behind the discovery of this scientific fact also suggests that there is also a possibility of an anti-universe in existence. Now if all the space and time are inside a the universe that we have, then the anti-universe would have to be somewhere else, not only in space but also in time and in every other respect, may be some other dimension in existence altogether. It is further suggested that if these two universes are brought close together they will collapse into each other and annihilate leaving behind them absolutely nothing.

Now this is my concept of nothing … nothing that incorporates in itself the entirely two entities completely opposite in their characteristic but co-existing in a state of complete and absolute harmony. However, the question is what caused the creation of matter, and anti-matter to counterbalance it in existence? What was before?

Similarly, what if there was no one to live? Would there still be death without life? You are right, I sometimes do place myself in the place of a spectator and enact in my imagination the act or process of my own demise – which is also a meditative state that mystics practice. There would not have been life, or death, if ‘you’ were not there to witness it and experience it.

The fear of dying is often associated with physical pains, suffocation and getting absolutely lost both in the body and mind, or being taken over by some formidable, hostile and deadly force. The fact is there in our mind is capacity for every thing; we can please ourselves just that much and there only just that pain that human body can endure and we can feel the torture of – the rest is the region of unknown to our senses.

The act of dying for many would be a chance to know what is this all about, or what lies ahead. Religion is excellently good in portraying a purposeful and vivid picture of possibilities of life after-death. And people who devotedly believe and practice religion, I would not think, would be that afraid of dying.

The last of the details of your question are very profound in their conveyance of the sense of what you mean. This is true that if you are ‘you’ then there is ‘no nothing’, or there is everything, but if you are not ‘you’ then there will also be nothing, as everything, all positives and negatives, would collapse and annihilate, therefore then you must exist and watch. You must also live and observe your death through the chinks of your imagination prowling in the shade of doubts and uncertainty, but rest assured that once you are ‘you’, you will always be ‘you’ doesn’t matter what.

Answer 6

the fear of nothingness is logical. man naturally fears what is unknown and by nature why are rational thinkers, we try to make logical steps or equations for everything in life hence philosophy.

some religious teachers believe that when you die you discard the physical body but your soul remains and that soul exists and you retain all your memories and feelings. even though you dont exist in this world anymore you exist on a different plain.

it is not according to the teachings of the bible life begins as this life we are now living is only temporal. people persecute the beliefs of others especially Christianity but ask yourself

"it life does begin after death then where will i be?"

Answer 7

I heard a great quote that pertains to this thought

"Why should I fear death? Since the start of the universe I have been dead, billions and billions of years. It was only when I was born that I stopped being dead.."

I wish I could figure out who said it. Regardless, since I have no recollection of the time before I was born, I don't expect to have any conscious thought after I die, either.

This isn't a bad thing. In Buddhism, non-existence is the highest reward you can achieve. Buddhists believe that your karma carries over to your next life when you are reincarnated. If you accumulate enough Karma, you eventually ascent to Nirvana. Nirvana is your removal from the reincarnation process, and your reward is the peace of non-existence. Hundreds of millions of Buddhists live happy, peaceful lives knowing that the ultimate prize for good living is non-existence.

I do not intend to be conscious to mourn my own death. For the same reason I did not face cosmic boredom waiting for my mother to birth me.

Answer 8

Fear of nothingness is logical and I don't find anything wrong with it. From teh time you are born you are showed with things, something, anything and we have a need to do that.

Nothingness means no activity and human beings are active beings.

Answer 9

Its not absurd if the fear of nothingness is just the reflection of the love of living. The existence of the "you" who is able to perceive anything is considered far more acceptable than the "nothing" that perceives nothing. It does become absurd when you fear death so much you forget to live.

Answer 10

This Site Might Help You.

RE:
is the fear of nothingness logically absurd?....do you think some people see death as being alone in the....?
....dark forever?...but...
arent you putting yourself in the shoes of a spectator, viewing your circumstance as this lonely dot in the middle of nothing?

who is this "you", thats able to be aware of the non existant you!

either there is a "you" and so by definition..not...

Answer 11

Fear of death is the irrational fear of something that was never real in the first place.


This is more easily understandable if one considers the actual scale of the components of an atom. If one takes into account the fact that the neutrons, protons and electrons of an atom actually have huge spaces between them it becomes clear that the atoms that make up seemingly solid objects are made up of 99+ percent empty space.

This alone does not seem too important till you add the idea that the atoms that make up seemingly solid objects are more of a loose conglomeration that share a similar attraction but never really touch each other.

At first glance this does not really seem relevant, but closer analysis reveals that this adds a tremendous amount of empty space to solid objects that are already made up of atoms that are 99 percent space. When so-called solid objects are seen in this light it becomes apparent that they can in no way be the seemingly solid objects they appear to be.

We ourselves are not exceptions to this phenomenon.

These seemingly solid objects are more like ghostly images that we interpret as solid objects based on our perceptual conclusions.

From this we must conclude that Perception is some sort of a trick that helps us to take these ghostly images and turn them into a world we can associate and interact with. This clever device seems to be a creation of our intellect that enables us to interact with each other in what appears to be a three dimensional reality.

I hope that helps to answered your question.

Love and blessings Don