Spirituality and Death
A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal
A slumber did my spirit seal;
I had no human fears:
She seemed a thing that could not feel
The touch of earthly years.
No motion has she now, no force;
She neither hears nor sees;
Rolled round in earth's diurnal course
With rocks, and stones, and trees.
--William Wordsworth
What are your thoughts about mortality?
Death isn't a problem because . . .
Death is a big problem because . . .
Death is something of a problem – for example, when people I love die – but it’s not a big or ultimate problem since . . .
Death used to be a problem to me but now it’s not a problem/has become less of a problem because . . .
Feel free to comment using one of these formulas – or not.
from The Raven
"Prophet!" said I, "thing of evil – prophet still, if bird or devil!
By that heaven that bends above us – by that God we both adore –
Tell this soul with sorrow laden, if, within the distant Aidenn,
It shall clasp a sainted maiden, whom the angels name Lenore –
Clasp a rare and radiant maiden, whom the angels name Lenore?
Quoth the raven, "Nevermore."
--Edgar Allan Poe
Posted by Paul at 12:24 PM Permalink
22 Comments:
I have no idea what will happen and that scares me.
...our species is part of a greater biological community where the death of one is the life of another.
**Death is something of a problem – for example, when people I love die – but it’s not a big or ultimate problem since
this life is made of illusionary phases that end sooner or later anyways - happy or sad moments. They all and anyways. So why cant we accept that life ends too? I can.
Keshi.
"Problem" isn't an appropriate word to use here, except to highlight the resistance of evolved species in general to premature death. We oppose death as we oppose pain. This applies to our loved ones as well as ourselves.
There is truth in each of the comments so far. Rimshot reminds us in particular that we often find death untimely, that is, we are not ready for it. And perhaps the belief that he has in Jesus Christ is part of a reaching out that helps become ready.
JACOB: Not sure I’m following you correctly… “Biologically” the death of one is the life of another… All that’s coming to mind are things eating other things – but we’re top predator! Oh, wait – I think you may mean, as the saying goes, how we end up “pushing up daisies,” feeding bacteria etc? So this might place your perspective along the lines of the Wordsworth quote - "rolled round with rocks and stones and trees?"
KESHI: Everything in life is illusory . . . Is it possible to feel certain about this without seeing or sensing that some things are real and being able to recognize what’s illusory by comparison?
As to why it’s not always easy for everyone to accept that life ends: It may be at least in part the idea that death may represent the complete loss of joy. Joy strikes me as pretty real; under my circumstances I’ve become highly aware of it. The progressive nature of my illness has left me basically losing one joy at a time. It really is the smallest, simplest things that bring great joy. If death is perceived as taking away all the joy of our lives forever, I can see how that could be a downer!
RIMSHOT: You might say that death is a universal deadline and that bearing this in mind to some degree helps provide focus. That’s an important aspect to me too.
Christian belief addresses the problem of death head on.
VINCENT: That’s true – death both is and isn’t a problem. It isn’t a problem in the sense that it’s a basic and totally unavoidable fact of life. But comparing it with physical pain is a good analogy, because these are both facts of life that living things strive to avoid.
VISHESH: As per my reply to Keshi: Is it possible to have the conviction that everything in life is an illusion without seeing or sensing that some things are real and being able to recognize what’s illusory by comparison?
Disney's The Lion King also addresses this theme surprisingly well.
What really made me think was when my children started asking about dying, not being religeous I didn't have anything definite to tell them. I said that I think of it like going back home to where we came from.
I think the problems come with being alive.
Keshi.
thank for your comments on my blog...enjoyed reading your post. Glad to be on the same path!
To recognize the true passions one has to accept the mortality of oneself and face it intelligently.
Death is a great teacher who shows the path to be followed in life. That is why he is called Dharmaraja in Hindu scriptures.
So far I’ve got these categories: CWL (Continuity/Wholeness of Life); Faith; and LAI (Life's an Illusion).
JACOB: I pronounce you CWL and will follow up next post – see Fun with Death above . . .
PAULINE: I’m putting you in the Faith category and will follow up further next post as per Fun with Death above . . .
KESHI: So again, if nothing’s real and everything’s illusion, how do you recognize the illusory quality of illusions? And btw, lol, I’m putting you in the LAI (Life’s an Illusion) category, and will follow up further next post as per Fun with Death above . . .
FRIEDA, thanks for stopping by. I’m putting you in the Faith category and will follow up further next post as per Fun with Death above . . . You’ve come in at an odd time . . . I’m not usually this, uh, eccentric.
I should have gotten this idea just before Halloween.
AVGW: I agree. You and Rimshot, in the first part of his comment, seem to be on the same general wavelength regarding death as having a positive aspect for life.
Death to me is not a problem, for I believe death to be a transition to another form that we are energy and that our energy is eternal. Death is not a fear. The worse thing about death is the void we feel when loved ones move on.
Problems have solutions.
HAZZBUZZ: Maybe. That is, time, space, the universe – whether there’s one universe or multiple universes is something we don’t even know . . . so it seems quite possible to me also that the full picture of whatever we’re doing here, and which is far from being fully known by us, could contain aspects that make death not a problem. We don’t know this is the case, but neither do we know it isn’t.
H KONIG: There are mathematical problems without solutions. People suffer from hundreds of rare diseases for which there is no cure and often no treatment. And living things solve the problem of death every day by doing things to avoid dying, although whether life ultimately solves the problem of death is an unknown.
I'd imagine that something like the unabridged Oxford dictionary may have some definitions of problem that include the idea of solution, but others that don’t. “Problem” is often used as a synonym for “difficulty.”
So when, for example, the Titanic was going down after the last of the lifeboats had pulled away, the men left on deck could justifiably have said “We’ve got a problem” although there was no solution.
When I said that every math problem has a solution, I was of course referring to real numbers. If, as humans who avoid reality tend to do, we desire to create solutions for problems that are nonsense (therefor not problems), thus requiring the imagination where anything is possible, such as the square root of negative one, we can acquire answers to problems that don't exist. Thus we create heaven. Stir in a little "divine" justice and we get hell or personal reincarnation.
The "after-life" is an example of an answer to humankind's problem with death. I don't look forward to death but I'm glad I'll have one for it's the one requirement of life. I will rephrase my answer to the problem of death: I don't have a problem with after death because I won't be there. The answer to before death is to live life the best I can, according to the dynamic situations I find myself in.
I don't have a problem with death because I live in the now. It's natural for intelligent beings, such as our species, to think ahead, to prepare for the oncoming hurricane, famine, drought, pandemic, economic collapse or war. This tendency to "live in the future" enabled humankind to dominate the Earth and master Technology, but is also causes many people to have a problem with death.
I'm not trying to belittle whatever suffering you're enduring. I'm perfectly healthy at the moment and have the problem of knowing I will not have this health forever. That wisdom causes me appreciate now more. But as I grow old and will inevitably loss the health I have, I know I'll have more life to relive in my past and that death will have less meaning because I'll have less to lose.
Those that have a serious problem with death should stop giving birth.
Living things are averse to death – it’s a problem in the sense of something undesired and to be avoided. However much it’s part of life, living things, while they’re alive, tend to do their best to stay that way as long as they can. So it’s not a superficial thing. And human beings, with our particularly acute self awareness, can experience that problem writ large or magnified. Certainly all the crying and mourning that goes on around losing people we love suggests that this is often the case.
Yet people are also highly individual. For you, death isn’t a problem; for me, it was once a big problem – now I would say there’s a little fear and trepidation left, but not much. For me, it’s been a process, and resolution as I’ve experienced it has involved gradual identify transformation.
Seems possible that there’s zero consequence to having lived – that having lived, it’s exactly as it was before we were born. I just don’t know.
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