This is one of the more philosophical portions I will do in this blog. This particular subject is rather a very sensitive one for many people. It is an analysis and discourse on the nature of death to me. The concept of death is a tricky and rather controversial topic due to the overwhelming religious battles over said concept. This makes it rather difficult to talk about.
Death to me is a very layered experience. I have a couple of friends with near death experiences and I've read several testimonies on it on the internet and on news reals and many of them seem to be predominantly Christian. I'm going to go off on a tangent here; I am an atheist, but I'm not an empiricist. I do not follow in any of the standard doctrines of any Abrahamic Religions. I've studied World Religions for a very long time and even took a short course on it early sophomore year. Abrahamic Religions seem to dominate other religious values entirely rendering nearly any other religion virtually obsolete. Studying Eastern religions however, particular Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism and so forth, I came across a broad realization: No one Religion is right, but all religions contain a piece of the truth.
Death to me like I said previously is a layered experience in the sense that there are many forms of Death. The most obvious one is the death of the body. This is where consciousness in the temporal world we live in ends, the body and brain (not mind) no longer functions and the body begins to deteriorate. This is the form of death that is most fearful to the human condition, mostly due to the uncertainty of what happens after. Another reason why it's fearful is because of the fear of separation from the loved one for an indeterminable amount of time, possibly eternally. But there is also a worse death; the death of the self.
The Self (capital "S") is the "spirit" or essence of that man. It is that man's ideas and through this he lives on in memories and hearts of others. To quote one of my favorite films and comic books "V for Vendetta": "Beneath this mask there is more than flesh. Beneath this mask is an idea and ideas are bulletproof." These ideas that people have, when they are conceived at the deepest levels of one's psyche with virtually no coercive influence from the outside, these are the purest thoughts a man can have. These are the thoughts that even lead to the conception of philosophy and to some degree, religion. These things immortalize a man. These things prevent the death of the True Self even long after the physical body has returned to Earth. However, the death of the Self is when one refuses to have and cultivate such thoughts. It's when a man seeks not to harness the Truer Self, but rather destroy it. We see this mentality manifest in various addictions, such as T.V., alcohol, drugs etc. These addictions are meant to separate someone from the Self. It distracts them and this conceives a social identity. I will cover this epistemological view in another post I tend to do soon, but the reason I brought it up is that it has a profound connection with Death on spiritual terms. When someone destroys the Self, which according to Soren Kierkegaard, is impossible and thus the essence of despair unto death, but when they die, in this world, they are no longer remembered. They are forgotten in the ravages of time, and that is when they truly die. Some even die before they actually physically perish.
The saddest type of death to me, is not the death of the body or the death of the memory, but rather the death of the Principles. Many religious practitioners believe that the bible is the Divine foundation for Morality. I disagree. I believe that morality comes from discipline and mastery of the Self. That bit is heavily endorsed in Chinese philosophy and Martial Arts or Kung Fu. Morality is born when people bear a willing respect and reverence not for a deity or god, but a reverence, love and respect for humankind, both good and evil. True morality isn't condemning those who you deem are bad, but rather treating both good and bad people equally and loving them both. The saddest form of death is the oppression of these ideals both on a social and worse, an individual level. The death of one's principles when said principles are obtained through long meditations (contemplation) and self examination is outstanding. Not only do you witness the death of an idea, but the death of the Self and the Selves of a social grouping, and that is truly saddening, because now the ideals and principles once endorsed by the person is not simply dead and remembered, but dead, remembered, and consequentially despised. This, in my opinion is True death, and anyone who suffers the death of these Principles (not principles from Religion or God, but personal principles and beliefs), then they are really nothing more than a walking corpse.
As for literal death and discussions on the afterlife and metaphysical notions, I think I will discuss that on a later point in time when I feel I obtained the right words to express it without discrediting the belief fundamentally.
Death to me is a very layered experience. I have a couple of friends with near death experiences and I've read several testimonies on it on the internet and on news reals and many of them seem to be predominantly Christian. I'm going to go off on a tangent here; I am an atheist, but I'm not an empiricist. I do not follow in any of the standard doctrines of any Abrahamic Religions. I've studied World Religions for a very long time and even took a short course on it early sophomore year. Abrahamic Religions seem to dominate other religious values entirely rendering nearly any other religion virtually obsolete. Studying Eastern religions however, particular Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism and so forth, I came across a broad realization: No one Religion is right, but all religions contain a piece of the truth.
Death to me like I said previously is a layered experience in the sense that there are many forms of Death. The most obvious one is the death of the body. This is where consciousness in the temporal world we live in ends, the body and brain (not mind) no longer functions and the body begins to deteriorate. This is the form of death that is most fearful to the human condition, mostly due to the uncertainty of what happens after. Another reason why it's fearful is because of the fear of separation from the loved one for an indeterminable amount of time, possibly eternally. But there is also a worse death; the death of the self.
The Self (capital "S") is the "spirit" or essence of that man. It is that man's ideas and through this he lives on in memories and hearts of others. To quote one of my favorite films and comic books "V for Vendetta": "Beneath this mask there is more than flesh. Beneath this mask is an idea and ideas are bulletproof." These ideas that people have, when they are conceived at the deepest levels of one's psyche with virtually no coercive influence from the outside, these are the purest thoughts a man can have. These are the thoughts that even lead to the conception of philosophy and to some degree, religion. These things immortalize a man. These things prevent the death of the True Self even long after the physical body has returned to Earth. However, the death of the Self is when one refuses to have and cultivate such thoughts. It's when a man seeks not to harness the Truer Self, but rather destroy it. We see this mentality manifest in various addictions, such as T.V., alcohol, drugs etc. These addictions are meant to separate someone from the Self. It distracts them and this conceives a social identity. I will cover this epistemological view in another post I tend to do soon, but the reason I brought it up is that it has a profound connection with Death on spiritual terms. When someone destroys the Self, which according to Soren Kierkegaard, is impossible and thus the essence of despair unto death, but when they die, in this world, they are no longer remembered. They are forgotten in the ravages of time, and that is when they truly die. Some even die before they actually physically perish.
The saddest type of death to me, is not the death of the body or the death of the memory, but rather the death of the Principles. Many religious practitioners believe that the bible is the Divine foundation for Morality. I disagree. I believe that morality comes from discipline and mastery of the Self. That bit is heavily endorsed in Chinese philosophy and Martial Arts or Kung Fu. Morality is born when people bear a willing respect and reverence not for a deity or god, but a reverence, love and respect for humankind, both good and evil. True morality isn't condemning those who you deem are bad, but rather treating both good and bad people equally and loving them both. The saddest form of death is the oppression of these ideals both on a social and worse, an individual level. The death of one's principles when said principles are obtained through long meditations (contemplation) and self examination is outstanding. Not only do you witness the death of an idea, but the death of the Self and the Selves of a social grouping, and that is truly saddening, because now the ideals and principles once endorsed by the person is not simply dead and remembered, but dead, remembered, and consequentially despised. This, in my opinion is True death, and anyone who suffers the death of these Principles (not principles from Religion or God, but personal principles and beliefs), then they are really nothing more than a walking corpse.
As for literal death and discussions on the afterlife and metaphysical notions, I think I will discuss that on a later point in time when I feel I obtained the right words to express it without discrediting the belief fundamentally.
