Why is death feared so much?

[ReturningMoon]

Hi everyone. To be honest I don't know what it is to be dead. Let's say that being dead is just a state of oblivion. Why would that be so bad? It's kind of hard to suffer that way. Suffering is what I think we spend most of our life doing anyway.
So why is death feared so much? I'm not condoning suicide by any means. I just think living in fear of death is essentially a waste of the life one has.
Any other thoughts would be appreciated.

[Native spirit]

People fear what they don't know it is the fear of the unknown..


Namaste

[HITESH SHAH]

Originally Posted by ReturningMoon

I just think living in fear of death is essentially a waste of the life one has.

I agree with crux of your message . While Fear of anything including death (like loss of money/ status /position/power /looks /beauty ) is futile , fear in right proportion is needed for longer survival . So unbridled foolish bravery too is unwarranted.

[Starman]

We can say its’ all about fear of the unknown, which is true, but it is also about control. Most people want to be in control of every situation and when something is out of their control they feel anxiety or even fear.

Those who are spiritually surrendered and those who absolutely trust the process of life and death have little to no fear. In my opinion death is completely safe; the only thing that freaks out is our ego; that which we think we are.

[Native spirit]

I would agree with that


Namaste

[boyce]

Humankind may be hard-wired for its preservation or perhaps natural selection over countless generations resulted in the survival of those with innate caution about indulging in life-threatening behavior.

But death is unavoidable and no amount of caution can prevent it. For many and perhaps most of us that situation is unsettling at best and creates immense fear at worst. Quite naturally we fear death or perhaps it's that we fear dying - they're not necessarily the same thing.

Those who know about survival beyond corporeal death likely do not have any fear about what they'll find when they have passed over. But that hard wiring I mentioned earlier - or natural selection of certain characteristics - may still leave them with fear of, or distress about, the sometimes protracted process of actually dying.

Quite naturally we may fear the possibility of extreme and chronic pain before death and/or the loss of our faculties, becoming frail and dependent on others, for example. You could say those too may partly explain our fear of death.

The various reasons must heighten the fears some have concerning death but we also should factor in that folk may also fear that their death will mean their obliteration, a total disappearance of everything they were as individuals.

Let's not be mealy-mouthed - on the face of it death can appear to be the end of things, the "When yer dead, yer dead." situation beyond which there is nothing, zero, zilch, nada, nichts.....

We who know differently about that last situation are immensely blessed.

[Starman]

Watching a dvd movie: Star Trek Beyond, and Captain Kirk says:
“We all know there is no such thing as the unknown, there are
only things that are temporarily hidden from us.”

I found this to be a true statement in real life, as well as in death.
Wisdom from a science fiction movie. Although I do not view space
as the final frontier; in my opinion death is the final frontier.

[DesertRose]

Besides fear of the unknown, I think it's also about survival.
The will to survive is something that's built-in.

[ActualityOfBeing]

Originally Posted by ReturningMoon

Hi everyone. To be honest I don't know what it is to be dead. Let's say that being dead is just a state of oblivion. Why would that be so bad? It's kind of hard to suffer that way. Suffering is what I think we spend most of our life doing anyway.
So why is death feared so much? I'm not condoning suicide by any means. I just think living in fear of death is essentially a waste of the life one has.
Any other thoughts would be appreciated.

It’s not that there is death and death is feared, it’s that death is a belief, and the belief feels quite off.

With some scrutiny of experience it can be noticed that while bodies are experienced to come & go, the awareness of experience never comes and never goes. Indeed, the truth is far stranger than any fiction.

[boyce]

Originally Posted by ActualityOfBeing

It’s not that there is death and death is feared, it’s that death is a belief, and the belief feels quite off.

Death is far more than a belief and is misunderstood by many.

Death DOES occur but it's the death of the physical body. That is a demonstrable fact; it's irrefutable - it's not a belief. Misunderstanding comes from believing death means we're gone for good as individuals.

It's understandable folk fear their death and assumed total disappearance.