The stone cold and sobering truth

a reply to: onequestion

You might die peacefully in your sleep, or instantly and feel nothing at all.

When I get to such a fatalistic mind set I always repeat that tired old quote we hear all the time...

We are spiritual beings having a human experience, not human beings having a spiritual experience.

Life isn't rainbow and sunshine for anyone. Not even the fat cats on top of the hill with all the money.

CdT

a reply to: onequestion

to be perfectly honest, dying alone is preferable to some things i have seen or read about. the jews did not die alone, after all. they died by the thousands.

a reply to: Cogidubnus

Some people are unable to handle their own psychology when faced with the brute facts of reality, as it reminds them they are living a lie. But that's the thing with optimism—high expectations leads to disappointment. At least with pessimism one is often pleasantly surprised.

a reply to: onequestion

The value in life comes from after confronting the reality you displayed, how to create the most joy and positivity and greatness and goodness for yourself and your relation to family and friends before death. Its the journey not the destination. The harsh negativity of death is a small punishment for all the potential positivity accessible in life.

a reply to: Cogidubnus

If we all lived as if we were alone the world would not look as it does today. I doubt humans would even exist if that were the case.

a reply to: onequestion

OK. Allow this idea to implant.

Time is likely to be a purely a human generated experience. Evidence of this is how time flow is distorted by what is going on in your mind. Also there is a platonic concept of "present" but it really might not exist.

When you biologically die, flow of time as you humanly know it could literally stop. Leaving the your brain (a quantum computer) imprinted on the universe itself with the wholeness of past/present/future.... for eternity.

boom.....resume

a reply to: onequestion

Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It's the transition that's troublesome.
Isaac Asimov

a reply to: yuppa

Hmm interesting point for sure! A little thing called pro creation does play a significant role in the human story. If we lived our lives to this ideology we probably would have died out millions of years ago. Maybe the illusion was just stronger back then? It is just recently that we have discovered that we never get to touch anything through out our entire lives? 100 years ago people would have found that claim to be unreasonable and down right wrong. Its almost like the more we learn, the less we know. The more we delve deeper into the mystery the more we realize the ideas we once took for granted are completely wrong. Maybe this is all a part of our evolutionary process. Maybe how you act when you are "competently alone" is the final test?
Either way who knows. Honestly I do not go around living my life like I am completely alone. I love human interaction and being a part of the human story. I love input from members on this site and Bouncing ideas back and forth. I feel closer to some of you than I do to many people I have known my entire life. Isn't that strange in an of itself!

originally posted by: onequestion
a reply to: Psynic

Nope, thats reality for all humans in this existence.

I'm sure what you're saying is 100% true.

For you.

originally posted by: TheSubversiveOne
a reply to: Cogidubnus

Some people are unable to handle their own psychology when faced with the brute facts of reality, as it reminds them they are living a lie. But that's the thing with optimism—high expectations leads to disappointment. At least with pessimism one is often pleasantly surprised.

i read somewhere that people will do anything to avoid directly facing their own soul. and in a way, thats what death is about.

a reply to: InverseLookingGlass

Sounds like a confused theory. At least confused theories are like sedatives for those who refuse to think beyond what they're told.

a reply to: TzarChasm

That sounds about right. It's sort of like refusing to be alone with one's own thoughts.

a reply to: onequestion

Husband and Wife Die Holding Hands Within 5 Hours of Each Other

We came into this world alone and we will leave alone. Judge that as "good" or "bad", but that's life and I'm OK with it.

originally posted by: onequestion
The stone cold and sobering truth of the world is that no matter how much money you make or what your life accomplishments may bring you you are going to die miserable and alone. You will eventually die in a horrifying accident or you will experience a long and drawn out miserable death on a hospital bed. Your going to be incontinent, most of your family will forget about you, they will have a funeral or cremate your body and you will be forgotten in a years time.

Nothing you do at this point will have mattered. You will face death totally alone.

Thats reality folks.

Sounds as though you will not just die miserable.

I hope you feel better soon, pal. a reply to: onequestion

Or, one could find ways to make their legacy a charitable one as charity survives beyond the grave.

a reply to: onequestion

Thats not true. When you gestate in the womb and are born into this world there are doctors, nurses and or midwives in attendance to make sure it goes okay.

Same when you are born into the next world. There are 'attendants' there as well.

No I don't have proof, do you?

a reply to: Cogidubnus

never touch anythiing? what does that mena? you had to touch your keyboard to type that right lol.

Do you mean seem to have a impact on the larger picture? Actually each person through inaction or action of another effects the environment. in turn effecting other things. Although to the individual this is im percievable on a personal level.

i think i can make a example. A person is walking in the desert and comes to a oasis and fills his bottles and canteens with water for his trek to the other side of the desert to see his cousin.

HE does this for years and does nto realize the water gets lower and lower. the next year he sets out and thinks ill fill up my water at the oasis. he gets there and find the oasis is dried up. Now he thinks i am totally screwed. What he didnt realize is that if he digs he can find some water to get back home but he does not and dies of thirst.

Later the mans cousin is wondering what is taking his cousin so long to get there. Causing his cousin to go search for him.

See the mans cousin was im perceptively effectet by his cousins death/missing. who was effected by the water drying up,and who was effected by the environment.

originally posted by: onequestion
The stone cold and sobering truth of the world is that no matter how much money you make or what your life accomplishments may bring you you are going to die miserable and alone.

Nothing you do at this point will have mattered. You will face death totally alone.

Thats reality folks.

This was pretty much the opening line of the opening lecture in one of my philosophy classes. The professor was challenging us to explain why life was worth living. It's easy to slip into nihilism when you fully grasp your end fate. It's here that our personal philosophy on life is exposed. How do you react to such a statement?

Denial?
Nihilism?
Do you cling to dogma of religion?
Do you seek out meaning of your own?

I struggled with the reality after reading Hamlet for the first time. The gravedigger tells Hamlet he started digging the prince's grave the moment he was born. The gravity of that lay on me heavily, and I languished under it. It was later that I discovered Sartre and Camus, and began to see that, for me, it doesn't matter how life ends, only that I know it will. And the challenge for my life is to find happiness and purpose that makes the inevitable fate nothing more than an end to a grand adventure. I may be alone, I may be miserable, but at the moment of my death, I will be at peace. Not because of some promised afterlife, or a possible reincarnation, but because I sought truth, happiness, and love with what time I had.

And just as an addendum, you say that nothing I do will matter. The question that should be the response to this is, "To whom?" If it matters to me, then the actions and accomplishments still matter, but not in a sense of the greater universe. To seek a legacy is folly and leads to misery, but to seek happiness within yourself is peace-giving.

I'm good with personal peace. Whatever legacy I have isn't truly mine anyway, but in the minds of others. And for all we know, other minds are simply simulations in a personal universe.

First post, be gentle.

a reply to: Benevolent Heretic

That was the article that first came to my mind.

I don't know when or where or how I will pass. I do know that I try to enjoy life and I do say my prayers and express my greatfulness for everything and everyone in my life.

I do believe if you were to surf the web you would find alot of stories of people who have passed with contentment.