In this uncertain world, the only basic certainties are that we are born, we have to live, and then we die. It’s an unfair trade. We are born into lives that we did not choose, we live and work to survive, and then we die leaving everything behind for all eternity. Yes, it all seems too unfair, but again we have no choice. How should we live our lives?
We want to live but simply living won’t make us feel alive so we indulge in worldly pleasures. Then, we realize that all the pleasure won’t last forever because we are going to die. So, we have developed ways to deny death. We have developed technology that would make us live longer and created religions that assure us that there is something after death. How should we deal with death?
Ironically, living means having needs and wants. We need food, water, and air. Without those we die. We want pleasure, and without it we won’t feel alive. We don’t want to die, and we also want to enjoy life. But no matter what we do, everything will come to pass and we will die. So does anything we do in this life really matter?
Honestly, I don’t have the perfect answer. I wish to find the real answers to these question because there are just too many versions out there and I really can’t tell which one is right. The only answer I could come up with by myself is to just do as much good as I can in this one life, regardless if it matters or not. I’ll live and continue to ask questions and find answers for myself while also raising questions and encouraging others to find their own answers. Thank you for reading.
Here’s something I got from a post from Love and Life by James Michael Filbird:
“Man sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived.” – The Dalai Lama
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It is true. We live to die, and we die to live again. From an eternal perspective, the only death that is truly premature is the death of one who is not prepared to meet God.
The afterlife…i respect your opinions and whether there is an afterlife or not,and whoever has the right idea will only be confirmed when we die.thanks for reading!
WOW! How depressing. All I can say is that if this world is all there is to life, our lives are absolute vanity.
True.it’s really depressing when we are faced with our mortality,but it’s an inescapable reality and personally,i think that it is better to accept that reality than to deny it.
you could use a broader definition of “yourself” that includes not only the body, but also all the things in the world that came into existence because of you. Friends that you helped, children that you raised, After all, we are not isolated beings but all parts of human race. We live and die, and the human race just lives and lives on.
Plus, our death actually allows for new and better things to come into existence. It wouldn’t happen if a bunch of olg geezers were constantly sitting around and complaining how in their time everything was better!
That is a very good point!thank you so much!
I have spent my life pondering this. I grew up as a minister’s child. Always around death. At funerals almost weekly. Beside the beds of the dying. While my friends partied and dated I chose to consider more important matters, and I felt so many of them chose to ignore it. No one wanted to think about it, but I never had that luxury. I lay awake nights considering the ramifications of sentient life, generational advancements, cultural traditions, religious implications and such. I went to school for theology and have stood before crowds in an attempt to scratch the surface of the question of life and it’s existence. I have never felt fully satisfied, and I don’t expect to. I do, however, expect to continue to be bothered by it and to consider it every day. I wasn’t made for blinders. I was made to ask all the hard questions and challenge all the conventional wisdom. I appreciate that we share that desire. I enjoy reading your ideas. I think I enjoy them most because you are intelligent enough to recognize what you do not know. That is a trait many people do not share. I wish I could show proof of what happens after we die. It certainly makes a world of difference. I’ve asked myself so many times “why should I make the world a better place for the next generation if there is no benefit to me past my death?” perhaps those exact sentiments permeate our culture more than we wish to admit. Perhaps that is why we will continue to drain our planet’s resources independently. It is not a question of “is the earth important?” it is a question of “why should I care?” and yet we are so strongly driven by internal instincts to survive and we dream of higher things. Perhaps the mere fact we are capable of envisioning more is a sign that it must be possible. Is it possible for our limited intelligence to comprehend and surpass reality? Or is it simply knocking on the door of a much more intricate and broad reality. I choose to believe that there is the possibility of life outside of chronology. That the countdown to death in our dimension, ruled by entropy, is not necessarily proof that everywhere is like this. I tend to think, if there are rays I can’t see, colors that my eyes cannot define, pitches I am unable to hear, than perhaps I was meant for more. Perhaps my machinery is capable of something else. We shall see…
Great post! Keep writing!
I often wonder if there’s something more,but my limited knowledge and abilities makes the answer hard to grasp.i hope in our discussions we can help each other get closer to understanding the truth.thanks for visiting!
great post with though provoking writing.
there is a depressing tinge in this article, but looking deeper i see a soul searching for enlightenment. i suggest you read some of buddhist philosophy, if the west doesn’t have answers, try the east. even they don’t have answers they may be able to offer you a different insight.
my take is we do all things because we are afraid of death. most religions speak about an afterlife. of salvation or of continuous roaming around. but the problem is not everything is approachable by our weak senses, and a lot is not amenable to science of our times. so we don’t have an exact answer for “what after death?” that makes us fear death because we don’t understand the true workings. so at present the best we can do is live a moral life and contribute to the well being of the society while improving our spirituality.
Yes i’m actually very curious about buddhism.i’ve been reading stuff from the dalai lama and buddha lately and i find them really interesting.thanks for the comment!