this post was submitted on 01 Oct 2023
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Funny, what you wrote sounds to me like a coping mechanism in itself haha.
Which is cool, like 90% of what we humans do is in some way a coping mechanism for our own mortality. We are all still going to die though, accept it or rage against it, it makes no difference in the end.
In what way? I don't deny that I'm going to die, I don't think this kind of life extension medical technology will become widely available quick enough and affordably enough to help me. But I also don't romanticize the prospect. It's one of those common mundane tragedies that happen every day.
Frankly, sounds like you are trying to Uno Reverse Card me but I don't even get what point you are trying to make. What, is just cherishing life a coping mechanism now?
Can a common mundane thing not still possess some beauty? And even in having beauty or not, must we judge it to be good or bad?
I'm not trying to do anything except talk shit on the internet. But yes, absolutely! It can be a coping mechanism, and there are definitely people who try to live to the fullest in the hopes that if they do it enough they'll be able to forget their own impermanence.
I mean, I spent most of my life trying not to die so it seems pretty bad to me. I can't exactly contemplate it like the falling leaf. I can see what you mean by how momentous it is but even if you can find beauty in it... it's in someone else's. You cannot really witness your own death to regard it as beautiful or horrible or anything.
Yeah there are people who fill their lives with noise not to think about their own mortality but I don't think that's my case. We are talking about it right now. I don't seek all my experiences as a checklist for death either. I won't be the one keeping track. I won't be the one remembering.
Death is the cessation of self, and as much as I don't fool myself into thinking I'd be immortal, I'd like to have as lengthy a self as I am afforded. Everything I cherish, I can only do so because I am. I can't see death as bringing meaning to anything. More like the ultimate meaninglessness. How could people define themselves by something which, as far as we understand, they won't even get to experience themselves?
I suppose there is spiritual belief, but even then it's ultimately unknown. However people believe they may exist past their deaths, it won't be like this.
But really, I feel really skeptical when people talk about the beauty and meaning of death because, if they truly believed that, wouldn't they be more proactive about it? Though that's pretty unhealthy to consider. Far from me to convince anyone they really truly see death as so wondrous.
These things that you cherish, would you still cherish them if you knew you could have them forever and never lose them? Or would they just become permanent things you get used to being there?
Happiness is only possible thanks to the sadness that contrasts it - without the suffering, is there really pleasure?
The way I look at it, life and death cannot be seperate things because one implies the other. Death has as much meaning and beauty as say, the fact that it rains - its something that happens, no more and no less.
Buddha teaches that the self, the ego, is merely an illusion - a very fun one, it's true, but an illusion regardless. It's the ego that attaches judgement to things, and this attachment is what leads to suffering. Someone who greatly cherishes life is therefore likely to fear death, and suffer because of it. The man who seeks only happiness is forever disappointed.
Even experiencing loss and finitude is only possible while alive. In a world of immortals you could still have a break-up or have someone you care about move away and lose touch with them. Taking something for granted is not a guarantee of permanence, with or without death on the picture.
We only think of death in regards to life, but there are plenty of things that are never alive. What does happiness and sadness and living means to a rock? It doesn't mean anything because it's not capable of comprehending, much like a skeleton.
Attachment may lead to suffering but survival is ingrained in our nature. We don't just give in if we have a particularly bad illness, nor do we want the others around us to give up so easily. Our civilization has put great efforts so that we don't have to be stuck with the lot that we are handed. Maybe it would be more peaceful to give in, but often would rather fight against tragedy. Life wants to live.
I wonder if it we would even have such lofty thoughts about death if it wasn't for the human propensity to philosophize and ask existential questions.
In a less animalistic sense, I would rather cherish life and fear death, than be impassive to both. Passions add great richness to our lives, even when we struggle because of them. And who knows, every now and then we manage to overcome the tragedies that we could have just given into, maybe one day people's lives will be much longer and happier because of it.