Who fears the Reaper ?

[BritManToo]

9 minutes ago, Golden Triangle said:

unless of course the Mrs has other ideas then I may not get to rest until about 01.00 hrs or later, yep lucky me, I know. ????

We'd need to see a photo before judging your 'luck'.

[Aussieroaming]

I'm saving enough to retire and live until I'm 150, I prefer not to go until I've spent my savings

[Mansell]

10 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

When you're dead, you don't know you're dead

 

 

 

Most of the time you do know you are dead.....most religions do have life after your body dies, but I'm not going to argue about religion. Many people have awareness before they were born. But most people don't want to believe it, and march down the road of "I am right and the rest of humanity is wrong."

There is a purpose for being here, but most of us do not want to look at that as it might make us feel uncomfortable. 

Look at your life and at the things that gave you the most joy and comfort.....usually love and family and friends....and now you have the meaning of life. Now all you have to worry about is the next life.555

[soalbundy]

Voltaire went in style, never one to go to mass or to concern himself with the church. A priest was at his bedside as Voltaire was dying and beseeched him to reject the devil to which Voltaire answered ;-

"Now, now my good man, this is no time to be making enemies"

[wgdanson]

8 hours ago, holy cow cm said:

Who hasn't thought about it. Taking your own life isn't in my cards. More like exercising the best to ability and then self medicating if have some aches and pains and prolonging things so the family doesn't have the stigma of ole dad killing himself the selfish way. As of actually scared- Nope. Scared of not having my family totally set up is the big thing and seeing the kids married and grandkids.

Would it not be more selfish to let your family watch you rot away in pain, than getting them all together around you at a convenient time and 'take the pills'. Bye bye in a nice, comfortable way.

[soalbundy]

Just now, Mansell said:

Most of the time you do know you are dead.....most religions do have life after your body dies, but I'm not going to argue about religion. Many people have awareness before they were born. But most people don't want to believe it, and march down the road of "I am right and the rest of humanity is wrong."

There is a purpose for being here, but most of us do not want to look at that as it might make us feel uncomfortable. 

Look at your life and at the things that gave you the most joy and comfort.....usually love and family and friends....and now you have the meaning of life. Now all you have to worry about is the next life.555

The illusory concept of 'me' never wants to die, which is why it thought up religion

[Catoni]

Used to fear death.  Even had a horrible feeling of impending doom once... due to cardiac arteries being 85% blocked.   But no longer fear death.  I had to go for quadruple cardiac bypass. (CABG x 4)  Recovering now and planning on returning to Cambodia and Thailand this Spring 2020 at the latest. But I ceratinly had a wake up call with the fact of my mortality. 

            I want to die in Cambodia or Thailand... not Canada. 

     I accept the fact that dying is just as natural as being born.  And I've gone for Refuge in the Triple Gem and accepted the Five Precepts at a Khmer Krom Theravada Buddhist temple.  So there is the doctrine of Impermanance in Theravada Buddhism which I accept also...  Nothing is forever.... Everything is only temporary...  So make use of the time you have to learn... and also just be a good person.

               I found comfort not in the Christianity I was raised in .... but in the Buddhism which to me makes much more common sense... and closer to modern science than other religions or philosophies.  Not the Buddhism with the local animism or Hinduism mixed in..... but just the basic teachings of Lord Siddartha Gautama Buddha. 

     Have no fear.... and be calm in your mind.  Be well. 

Edited August 12, 2019 by Catoni
correction

[wgdanson]

3 hours ago, Golden Triangle said:

unfortunately none of us are privy in advance to our passing

Unless you organise it yourself.

[wgdanson]

6 hours ago, JamesBlond said:

Agree that if you have family then you should prolong things as long as you have a practical role to play, but there comes a point when you are mainly a burden on them, especially if one lapses into dementia, and then it's more selfish to cling on.

I believe it is possible to exit gracefully without anyone knowing you have done it - fake an accident, for example - if you have the right plan in place. Best to stay on cordial terms with the Reaper well in advance.

Why fake an accident. Why not get them all round you and then take the 'pills' and say bye bye comfortably.

[Golden Triangle]

5 minutes ago, wgdanson said:

Unless you organise it yourself.

Damn, I deleted the word 'Natural' before I hit submit, nice one sir ???? 

[Golden Triangle]

35 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

We'd need to see a photo before judging your 'luck'.

Pushing 43, weighs 41 Kg, exercises with local friends almost everyday, runs mini marathons frequently and wears me out, as much as I would like to post a photo I will refrain as too many people locally know her ????

 

[wwest5829]

At 72, I am enjoying my retirement in Thailand (share concerns about weak USD, having to report I returned to the same address when I spend a night out of the province, had my 1st scare about Extension this year). So, not in a rush for the next adventure (passing). Philosophically fear of punishments or rewards does not enter into my thinking. Still, I have had 5 by-passes in 2005, heart attack 2015 so passing is a very real possibility at any time ... true for all of us, I suppose. The good news of having the heart issues is that all my Paternal line relatives have died of heart attacks and did not linger. Family records have recorded peaceful sudden passings. Part of the reason for living here was to spare my Sons any responsibility of watching my slow demise.

[emptypockets]

9 hours ago, Moonlover said:

'For millions of years mankind lived just like the animals
Then something happened which unleashed the power of our imagination
We learned to talk'. (Stephan Hawking on Pink Floyd's The Division Bell) 

 

The gazelle fleeing the leopard doe not do so because it fears death, it is simply following the 'fight or flight' message coming from its amygdala in the brain. The most visible example of Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection. It has no concept of death as we understand it. 

 

But we learned to talk and so were able to make up myths and legends, no doubt amply aided by the use of hallucinogenic substances. And so the 'fear of death' was born. Just another example of Hawkin's 'power of imagination'.

Keep Talking.

[soalbundy]

1 hour ago, Catoni said:

Used to fear death.  Even had a horrible feeling of impending doom once... due to cardiac arteries being 85% blocked.   But no longer fear death.  I had to go for quadruple cardiac bypass. (CABG x 4)  Recovering now and planning on returning to Cambodia and Thailand this Spring 2020 at the latest. But I ceratinly had a wake up call with the fact of my mortality. 

            I want to die in Cambodia or Thailand... not Canada. 

     I accept the fact that dying is just as natural as being born.  And I've gone for Refuge in the Triple Gem and accepted the Five Precepts at a Khmer Krom Theravada Buddhist temple.  So there is the doctrine of Impermanance in Theravada Buddhism which I accept also...  Nothing is forever.... Everything is only temporary...  So make use of the time you have to learn... and also just be a good person.

               I found comfort not in the Christianity I was raised in .... but in the Buddhism which to me makes much more common sense... and closer to modern science than other religions or philosophies.  Not the Buddhism with the local animism or Hinduism mixed in..... but just the basic teachings of Lord Siddartha Gautama Buddha. 

     Have no fear.... and be calm in your mind.  Be well. 

Buddhism, like the Tao are really philosophies and not religions although both give credence to a mystery that can't be known. Buddha was asked if there was a God and he answered "That can't be known, it is therefore pointless to ponder the question." My belief is that we see the manifestations of the universe around us from a power that we can't comprehend and never will. If Advaita is to be believed then there is only one, the absolute appearing as the many and so we and everything else are also this absolute because besides the absolute there is nothing else, there cannot be two, only one. the 'me' of course has to die with the body because it is only a concept, what is left is the cause of the manifestation. Who knows ? nobody, certainly not the mind which is only thought.

[davidst01]

13 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Agree. My future if I don't die of natural causes holds a rest home attended by underpaid and overworked staff. Surely suicide is a better fate than that?

 

I fear not death as we all die- but I fear the manner of my passing. Few get to die peacefully in our sleep.

I've looked after many terminal people as a nurse, and there is nothing romantic about dying in a hospital or a care facility.

 

theres nothing romantic about suicide either pal

[Tagged]

6 minutes ago, davidst01 said:

theres nothing romantic about suicide either pal

Not romantic, but a better way to leave this planet with sanity and pride!

 

If Im realise Im going to shit myself and be taken care of the next 5-10 years, I will do something about it! Simple as that

[holy cow cm]

4 hours ago, wgdanson said:

Would it not be more selfish to let your family watch you rot away in pain, than getting them all together around you at a convenient time and 'take the pills'. Bye bye in a nice, comfortable way.

Up to you and everyone else. For me have the byes and love you’s already done as saying if I die and your not there then.....  I have experienced it twice already  but there was no suicide just going to go the bare end of real life. So I think best a little out of sight and all said already. No need to let them know you committed or show them you commit suicide. Keep it cleaner if possible 

Edited August 12, 2019 by holy cow cm

[JamesBlond]

If you are a deep thinker and a sentimentalist then I should think facing the end is a whole lot worse. I once nearly drowned and the sense of self-pity when I thought I was a gonner was harrowing and after 20 years I have hardly got over it (it's perfectly true, by the way, that your life flashes before your eyes - a remarkable experience). 

 

Just to complicate matters I have a particular dread of anyone seeing my dead body, so my self-euthanasia plans involve a silent disappearance, deep in the jungle or the desert or a glacial crevasse, leaving a note just saying "I am off for an amazing adventure - I may be some time". Rehearsing one's last hours in such a situation is a rich existential exercise.

[Ctkong]

5 hours ago, Catoni said:

Used to fear death.  Even had a horrible feeling of impending doom once... due to cardiac arteries being 85% blocked.   But no longer fear death.  I had to go for quadruple cardiac bypass. (CABG x 4)  Recovering now and planning on returning to Cambodia and Thailand this Spring 2020 at the latest. But I ceratinly had a wake up call with the fact of my mortality. 

            I want to die in Cambodia or Thailand... not Canada. 

     I accept the fact that dying is just as natural as being born.  And I've gone for Refuge in the Triple Gem and accepted the Five Precepts at a Khmer Krom Theravada Buddhist temple.  So there is the doctrine of Impermanance in Theravada Buddhism which I accept also...  Nothing is forever.... Everything is only temporary...  So make use of the time you have to learn... and also just be a good person.

               I found comfort not in the Christianity I was raised in .... but in the Buddhism which to me makes much more common sense... and closer to modern science than other religions or philosophies.  Not the Buddhism with the local animism or Hinduism mixed in..... but just the basic teachings of Lord Siddartha Gautama Buddha. 

     Have no fear.... and be calm in your mind.  Be well. 

Yes. Buddhism believe in karma, indestructible soul, reincarnation and cycle of lives. What you are, you create your own heaven or hell because of your innate nature. A good compassionate person with service to others would have a much different body vibration( higher vibration or frequency)  than a lesser person. Ever heard of lifting your spirit ? So when you expire, your soul with the said vibration frequency would be attracted to the same vibrationary

plane which can be heaven. Vice versa for those with lower vibratory frequency being attracted to a lower plane which can be hell. What is also important in Buddhist teaching is the state of your mind at the last moment you expire. If it is in a state of fear or anger or discomfort or regret or other undesirable emotional state of mind, you may be a prisoner of your own mindset. So it is best to be hopeful of a quick and painless death without fear or anger.

This is what I gather from the teaching of Buddhism. 

[bartender100]

[bartender100]

Life everyday like its your last

[Tagged]

38 minutes ago, bartender100 said:

Life everyday like its your last

Live everyday like it is your last! I did that my first 35. Enjoy life more at 50 after realizing life is still coming to me, If I just open mye eyes, see, listen, and keep my mind open for changes!

[Grusa]

I have no fear of death, as such, and I do not believe in "the other side".

I do fear the process of getting there. I really don't want to suffer. My exit strategy is planned and prepared, and I will be p***ed off if some circumstance prevents me from using it if necessary when the time comes.

[madmen]

1 hour ago, Ctkong said:

Yes. Buddhism believe in karma, indestructible soul, reincarnation and cycle of lives

knowing my luck I would come back as a mangy soi dog and a bitch in heat probably. luckily I don't believe in fairy tales

[cobra]

Like many have indicating, few really fear death itself, just the process.

 

I recall a simple axiom my car mechanic told me when I inquired on a repair, 

.. well, it'll run until it doesn't, .. 

 

I've adopted that as a simple precept in life ????

[Chicksaw]

I want to go peacefully in my sleep like my grandfather, not screaming in terror like those at the back of his car.

[bartender100]

My wish is to live long enough to see Norwich win the Premier League

[alfalfa19]

I've had a couple of near death experiences, one of them quite horrific.   Previous to that , i had a very lackadaisical mindset about death, thinking i had a philosophical and mature outlook on the big dirt nap.  However, after my near fatality,  I discovered that I really, really, really want to live.  I went into a severe depression for a couple of months after my NDE, because it really brought home to me that we have to leave this world at some point , and that realization was quite painful. 

[alfalfa19]

6 hours ago, bartender100 said:

that character has the right attitude.

[soalbundy]

39 minutes ago, alfalfa19 said:

I've had a couple of near death experiences, one of them quite horrific.   Previous to that , i had a very lackadaisical mindset about death, thinking i had a philosophical and mature outlook on the big dirt nap.  However, after my near fatality,  I discovered that I really, really, really want to live.  I went into a severe depression for a couple of months after my NDE, because it really brought home to me that we have to leave this world at some point , and that realization was quite painful. 

The world is in harmony due to opposites, long needs short to be long, up needs down to be up, good needs evil to be good, life needs death for there to be life. Life has a dream like quality about it, sit in meditation in front of a tree, forget 'me', and you realize it isn't real, it is a manifestation like yourself, all the sages have known this for thousands of years, only the mind makes things real, the mind is very persistent, it clamours to be heard but understands nothing, it rejects being finite but knows it is. You are a film running on a screen and yet you aren't aware of the screen, the film ends but the impersonal screen remains, it doesn't care what film is running on its surface, it alone is real. What is running the film? now there's a question which can't be answered.

Edited August 12, 2019 by soalbundy