Is poverty, old age and illness a form of death?

[Altair]

Originally Posted by Honza

It is interesting that most of you do not find death much of a problem. A challenge maybe but not something which defeats you.

Hi Honza...
Like you I consider death a problem. We don't know what comes after. There have been people that say they know, based on either belief or a funky experience, but truth is you can't know until you're actually dead. The fear of death is universal. It is one of the things that unites people, for good or worse. Having strong belief really helps for us humans to reduce stress. :)

Originally Posted by Altair

Hi Honza...
Like you I consider death a problem. We don't know what comes after. There have been people that say they know, based on either belief or a funky experience, but truth is you can't know until you're actually dead. The fear of death is universal. It is one of the things that unites people, for good or worse. Having strong belief really helps for us humans to reduce stress. :)

Hi Altair... Call me simple ( and many do )....but you either die and there's nothing ...or you don't !!!!!.....And as far as I'm concerned that's it !!!! Cake ?

[Altair]

Originally Posted by Elfin

Hi Altair... Call me simple ( and many do )....but you either die and there's nothing ...or you don't !!!!!.....And as far as I'm concerned that's it !!!! Cake ?

Hi Elfin!!
What you say is true.. and it's a thought of relief by itself. I suppose it's the 'journey' towards knowing you die that is agonizing...
I'd prefer it quick and with no possibility of contemplating it.

Originally Posted by Altair

Hi Elfin!!
What you say is true.. and it's a thought of relief by itself. I suppose it's the 'journey' towards knowing you die that is agonizing...
I'd prefer it quick and with no possibility of contemplating it.

Well yes and of course it is..cruel by any standard ... Being born, only to know one must "die" ... I think the cruellest thing ever invented !!!!! But then, when we "realize" we chose this .. we could argue we only have ourselves to blame!!!!... That's why cake was invented.. to soften the blow !!!

[inavalan]

Originally Posted by ImthatIm

Yes, BigJohn
You are correct and that amazes me also.
As does the whole amazing body system.
It also amazes me how this whole universe seems to be symbiotic and interconnected.
Our dependence on the sun and plants for both food and air and dependence on water
and earth and how it is all held together but yet so delicately balanced.
It all proves to me that there is an intelligent Creator that has
made and sustained Life for who knows how long.

When I'm dreaming I believe all those to be true for the dream world and the me in that dream. How do you explain that? What would give it away that I am dreaming?

How do you know that what you're so amazed of, now-here-awake, isn't a dream-like creation?

[inavalan]

Pascal's wager is an argument in philosophy presented by the seventeenth-century French philosopher, theologian, mathematician and physicist, Blaise Pascal (1623–1662). It posits that humans bet with their lives that God either exists or does not.

Pascal argues that a rational person should live as though God exists and seek to believe in God.

• If God does not actually exist, such a person will have only a finite loss (some pleasures, luxury, etc.),
• whereas if God does exist, he stands to receive infinite gains (as represented by eternity in Heaven) and avoid infinite losses (eternity in Hell).

Historically, Pascal's wager was groundbreaking because it charted new territory in probability theory, marked the first formal use of decision theory, existentialism, pragmatism, and voluntarism.

[Honza]

Death is more than just the final end of our life. It is all those little or big sufferings on the way. What is suffering? I call it manifestations of death. It is death eating away at your life.

[inavalan]

Originally Posted by Honza

Death is more than just the final end of our life. It is all those little or big sufferings on the way. What is suffering? I call it manifestations of death. It is death eating away at your life.

I never blame others for my suffering. I can always trace its origin to an error of mine.

I don't understand how you make the connection between your suffering and your death, but ... there are many things around that I don't understand.

[Honza]

Originally Posted by inavalan

I never blame others for my suffering. I can always trace its origin to an error of mine.

I don't understand how you make the connection between your suffering and your death, but ... there are many things around that I don't understand.

What would you call the cause of suffering?

I see death as a type of spiritual force which exerts negative affects on people. Including suffering.

[inavalan]

Originally Posted by Honza

What would you call the cause of suffering?

I see death as a type of spiritual force which exerts negative affects on people. Including suffering.

Ultimately: ignorance.

Imagine a lucky bug that keeps hitting a lit lamp's shade, and an unlucky one that got attracted by a shadeless lit lamp. Different levels of suffering.

We don't know who / what we are, we don't know where we are, and why we are here, we don't know what we are here to do, we aren't yet evolved enough to get answers, nor to apply them; we are at various points through our quest.