It is only our physical body that dies, but all through life human beings have death-like experiences. I am not referring to near-death experiences; rather I am referring to experiences of loss. Experiences where we grieve the lost of something, or someone, dear to us.
It may be a divorce or the breakup of a closely held relationship, the death of a pet, the loss of our youth or innocence, the death of a loved one or a stranger, or even the loss of a job. Things that bring us to grieving are as preparation for the loss of our own physical life.
The vast majority of terminally ill people go through stages of grieving, and impermanence while we are healthy and full of life paves the way for us to embrace our own physical impermanence; that is if we pay attention to the impermanence that we experience in all that we do on a daily basis.
I am of the belief that our physical death is predetermined. The method of our death is another matter in my opinion, whether we die from suicide, homicide, a sudden illness or injury, accident, or a drawn out terminal illness, death does the same thing to us. Although the method of our death may cause different reactions from ourselves, while we are dying, and those who survive us here on Earth.
From a scientific point of view. Our physical body is programmed with the genetic coding of our biological parents and certain terminal illnesses do run in the family. Suicides often run in the family also, although I would not say that people are preprogrammed to commit suicide. Nonetheless, human beings have a physical, and maybe even an emotional, predisposition that is handed down by their biological parents. Looking at our biological parents can give us an idea of our longevity, notwithstanding accidents and other anomalies, and also how our physical body will age.
From a religious point of view. In the Christian Bible, Ecclesiastes 3. “To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven. A time to be born, a time to die,” etc. There was even a song made out of this Bible verse. There are lots of religions that believe in “fate” as it pertains to death. Lots of Hindus believe in astrology to determine when they might die. Some people embrace the reading of a person’s palm to determine their longevity. There are many religious and philosophical approaches to the topic of whether our death is predetermined or not.
From a spiritual point of view. I have talked to a lot of people who have had out of body experiences, and many of them recount going down a tunnel and meeting a being near the end of that tunnel. Some say that being resembled Jesus, others say Buddha, others say Krishna, or their guru here on Earth, and still others say that being had no facial features; it was just radiating intense love and light.
However, one thing all of these people who had this experience of the tunnel, told me that the being they encountered in the tunnel told them, “it is not your time yet.” An they were sent back into this physical world. This implies to me that there is an individual time for each of us to cross over to the other side. Now just because our death may be predetermined does not mean we should not grieve the loss of that person when they die. We are always grieving for ourselves even when we say we are grieving the loss of someone, or something, else.
So I guess maybe I should ask a question here. Do you believe that our physical human death is predetermined?
Below is a link to a discussion that I started back in May 2016 about people knowing when they are going to die; which I think may be tied into the topic of this thread.
http://www.spiritualforums.com/vb/sh...d.php?t=101205
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