Are you prepared to die?

[an anarchist]

I'm a youngster compared to the majority of you RFers.

Occasionally, I'll see a member that seems awfully aware that they nearing the end.

Religion/spirituality is often used to assuage the fear that comes with death.

So, I ask you older religious folk this: has your religion/spiritual practice freed you from the fear of death? Are you ready to go as a result of your religious beliefs?

 

[Spirit of Light]

I'm a youngster compared to the majority of you RFers.

Occasionally, I'll see a member that seems awfully aware that they nearing the end.

Religion/spirituality is often used to assuage the fear that comes with death.

So, I ask you older religious folk this: has your religion/spiritual practice freed you from the fear of death? Are you ready to go as a result of your religious beliefs?

I am not of the oldest in RF, but yes i am prepared for the day I die.
Been to close to death to many times to not be prepared.

 

[Mock Turtle]

I'm a youngster compared to the majority of you RFers.

Occasionally, I'll see a member that seems awfully aware that they nearing the end.

Religion/spirituality is often used to assuage the fear that comes with death.

So, I ask you older religious folk this: has your religion/spiritual practice freed you from the fear of death? Are you ready to go as a result of your religious beliefs?

I'm probably not that unique but I don't seem to have any fear towards death and mostly it is simple acceptance - no sleepless nights or any tendencies as to mulling over this - and anything I tend to feel about death is more as to regrets that I couldn't do more with my life and as to what I will miss out on - as to what will happens to humans in the future mostly. Most of the friendships I have had in the past have gotten rather cold and I doubt many, if any, will miss me when I'm gone. C'est la vie (et mort).

 

[an anarchist]

I am not of the oldest in RF, but yes i am prepared for the day I die.
Been to close to death to many times to not be prepared.

Would you say being close to death has prepared you more for death than your religious beliefs has prepared you?

 

[Spirit of Light]

Would you say being close to death has prepared you more for death than your religious beliefs has prepared you?

I think both actually prepared me to be fully calm about it.
I often ask myself "what happens if I died right now" and every time the answer is, I am ok with that.

 

[ChristineM]

I'm a youngster compared to the majority of you RFers.

Occasionally, I'll see a member that seems awfully aware that they nearing the end.

Religion/spirituality is often used to assuage the fear that comes with death.

So, I ask you older religious folk this: has your religion/spiritual practice freed you from the fear of death? Are you ready to go as a result of your religious beliefs?

Sorry, I have no religion but I'd like to reply anyway.

I have no fear of death and yes i am ok with dying, it happens to us all. . But... There is always a but... Id like to see my children fledge the nest before i go.

 

[stvdv]

I'm a youngster compared to the majority of you RFers.

Occasionally, I'll see a member that seems awfully aware that they nearing the end.

Religion/spirituality is often used to assuage the fear that comes with death.

So, I ask you older religious folk this: has your religion/spiritual practice freed you from the fear of death? Are you ready to go as a result of your religious beliefs?

Yes, I am ready to go

For the moment I am not eager to go; meaning it goes quite well, and I won't make efforts to go

IF nukes start flying THEN I hope I'm gone

This experience is not on my "To Do" list

 

[ajay0]

I credit reading Yogananda's book 'Autobiography of a Yogi' with getting rid of my fear of death/annihilation or loss of loved ones, as a teenager.

There is a chapter devoted to explaining the afterlife or life after death, astral dimensions and so on explained in a coherent manner. It is a book I enjoy reading even now as well due to its insights on many subjects.

 

[exchemist]

I'm a youngster compared to the majority of you RFers.

Occasionally, I'll see a member that seems awfully aware that they nearing the end.

Religion/spirituality is often used to assuage the fear that comes with death.

So, I ask you older religious folk this: has your religion/spiritual practice freed you from the fear of death? Are you ready to go as a result of your religious beliefs?

I think it's not so much fear of death where religion helps. It helps more by providing a sense of continuity down the generations in the face of death, and a way of confronting it that we otherwise lack in modern society, where for the most part we keep up a pretence that we are all immortal. It seems to me that the ideas about an afterlife that many religions contain are more for the benefit of the loved ones left behind than to calm the person who is dying.

Personally, I find the things that help me embrace the idea of death with equanimity are mainly the exponentially increasing stupidity of politics and the media.

 

[Twilight Hue]

I'm a youngster compared to the majority of you RFers.

Occasionally, I'll see a member that seems awfully aware that they nearing the end.

Religion/spirituality is often used to assuage the fear that comes with death.

So, I ask you older religious folk this: has your religion/spiritual practice freed you from the fear of death? Are you ready to go as a result of your religious beliefs?

I'm never prepared but that said, I'm ready to go whenever the reaper snaps his boney fingers and sez, "It's time".

I found that out when I had my heart attack.

 

[RestlessSoul]

I'm probably not that unique but I don't seem to have any fear towards death and mostly it is simple acceptance - no sleepless nights or any tendencies as to mulling over this - and anything I tend to feel about death is more as to regrets that I couldn't do more with my life and as to what I will miss out on - as to what will happens to humans in the future mostly. Most of the friendships I have had in the past have gotten rather cold and I doubt many, if any, will miss me when I'm gone. C'est la vie (et mort).

Of course you’ll be missed. The world will go on as it always has, but it won’t be quite the same world without you.

 

[lewisnotmiller]

I'm never prepared but that said, I'm ready to go whenever the reaper snaps his boney fingers and sez, "It's time".

I found that out when I had my heart attack.

All these different religions have answers about the afterlife, and atheism doesn't. I am pretty sure that's because atheists never die. Checkmate Pascal.

 

[lewisnotmiller]

I'm a youngster compared to the majority of you RFers.

Occasionally, I'll see a member that seems awfully aware that they nearing the end.

Religion/spirituality is often used to assuage the fear that comes with death.

So, I ask you older religious folk this: has your religion/spiritual practice freed you from the fear of death? Are you ready to go as a result of your religious beliefs?

Oooh...can I answer based on what I've seen from people EVEN OLDER THAN ME?!?!

Some are indeed comforted by their beliefs. But there are plenty of others who become more fearful. I suspect they believe just enough to think they're about to be judged, but not enough to have lived a good life. Or their belief is more cultural expression than deep-seated belief in an omnibenevolent being.

So ultimately I think the greatest level of peace comes from being honest with yourself about what you ACTUALLY believe, and reflecting that in how you live.

It'll end one day. Go tell your mum you love her while you can.

 

[The Sum of Awe]

I'm a youngster compared to the majority of you RFers.

Occasionally, I'll see a member that seems awfully aware that they nearing the end.

Religion/spirituality is often used to assuage the fear that comes with death.

So, I ask you older religious folk this: has your religion/spiritual practice freed you from the fear of death? Are you ready to go as a result of your religious beliefs?

I'm not old but I often think about "if today were my last day"

I would say it's less so my spiritual beliefs that relieve me from my fear of death but more so the idea that I'm living life in the best way I know to.

Edit: I want to specify that by 'relieve' I mean alleviate. Of course I fear death, of course I fear regretting not living to my fullest, I'm just saying I know I'm a flawed human so I can forgive myself for not knowing what more I could've done in the moment.

 

[Kenny]

I'm a youngster compared to the majority of you RFers.

Occasionally, I'll see a member that seems awfully aware that they nearing the end.

Religion/spirituality is often used to assuage the fear that comes with death.

So, I ask you older religious folk this: has your religion/spiritual practice freed you from the fear of death? Are you ready to go as a result of your religious beliefs?

I can't say that I'm ready to go... too much to do, too much I want to do. Yet, in the midst of "not read", I can still say I'm ready if something would happen.

The closer to the end one finds themselves, the more one appreciates every day that we live. Youth has a distorted view that life is eternal and tomorrow is guaranteed.

Great thought, thank for posting.

 

[RabbiO]

Id like to see my children fledge the nest before i go.

Thanks to you I learned a new word today.

 

[Terrywoodenpic]

I am one of the older members here at 87, and a majority of my peers are already dead.
I have no fear of death, only a fear of how that might come about, I would not care for a lingering painful death.

I have no more idea than anyone else as to what might happen next.
A belief in God is not the same as a belief in a second Life of some kind.
Both are unknowably, beyond belief.
I certainly do not believe that we would have any awareness of our previous selves, what ever the outcome.
A possible continuity of the spirit is not the same as a continuity of the mind and memory.

I can see no reason to believe that there is any more reason to expect our continuation, than there is to expect the continuation of a dead plant, insect or animal. The possibility is vanishingly small. And has no necessary connection to the existance or not of God. Death brings the complete lack of awareness, hopes, fears and regrets.

The continuation is with those we leave behind.

The marks we leave behind, are whatever we have done and influenced. The future is not ours.

 

[ChristineM]

Thanks to you I learned a new word today.

A new word, off me? Really? That doesn't happen often ;-) Glad to be of service.

 

[Fool]

I'm a youngster compared to the majority of you RFers.

Occasionally, I'll see a member that seems awfully aware that they nearing the end.

Religion/spirituality is often used to assuage the fear that comes with death.

So, I ask you older religious folk this: has your religion/spiritual practice freed you from the fear of death? Are you ready to go as a result of your religious beliefs?

i'm not afraid of change. but I don't want to suffer. most folks don't.


life is change; so life is preserved in evolving/involving.

 

[Ben Dhyan]

I'm a youngster compared to the majority of you RFers.

Occasionally, I'll see a member that seems awfully aware that they nearing the end.

Religion/spirituality is often used to assuage the fear that comes with death.

So, I ask you older religious folk this: has your religion/spiritual practice freed you from the fear of death? Are you ready to go as a result of your religious beliefs?

As Woody Allen once quipped.... I'm not afraid of dying, it's just that I don't want to be there when it happens!

Yes, as a religious person, I am aware there is much more to me than my body, so in that sense there is no fear wrt loss of this body, but otoh my body feels pain and that unfortunately seems to be very much a common experience wrt the death of the body.