Is death really our enemy?

[Francine]

Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:[26] "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death". Yet without death, wealth and power would continue to accumulate in fewer and fewer immortal hands, and old ideas would never give way to new ones. Without death, people would not feel the vitality of living that the very brevity our our life stimulates, and the Earth would continue to fill up with people until everyone was eating those funny green graham crackers Charlton Heston found out about.

Whether death is destroyed now or at the end of time, it is not really our enemy, no more than pain is our enemy. Pain is a defense mechanism, just as the fear of death is. People who cannot feel pain rarely live to be twenty years old, and those who feel we should wage a war against Demon Pain are as ignorant as those who mistake (as the slings and arrows of an enemy) the natural fear of death which is ingrained in all living things to cause them to avoid risky behaviors.

 

[MysticSang'ha]

Not in my school of Buddhism. In fact, it's our greatest teacher.




Peace,
Mystic

 

[Nanda]

Who knows? The only thing we can be certain of as far as death is concerned is that we're all going to die; what that really means is anyone's guess.

 

[BucephalusBB]

The only thing we can be certain of as far as death is concerned is that we're all going to die

Says who?
I have never ever died before nor see me dying have you?

 

[Nanda]

Says who?
I have never ever died before nor see me dying have you?

Wow, I was going under the assumption that because everything living eventually dies, we would all die too, but you found the flaw in my logic. I guess you're going to live forever.

 

[Willamena]

Wow, I was going under the assumption that because everything living eventually dies, we would all die too, but you found the flaw in my logic. I guess you're going to live forever.

Well, you're right: it is an assumption.

 

[Nanda]

Well, you're right: it is an assumption.

I'd say it's more of an educated guess.

 

[Papersock]

Says who?
I have never ever died before nor see me dying have you?

The odds are pretty good that you will die too.

 

[YmirGF]

Not in my school of Buddhism. In fact, it's our greatest teacher.

I agree. I learned some decades ago to use "death" as an advisor, as it is relentlessly stalking us throughout our days. In my view it is better to be a peace with death, make it your friend, rather than try to avoid the inevitable. Plus, it isn't like everyone has NEVER died before, lol. In my thinking, we have all died more times than we would ever care to remember. One of the key elements in each incarnation is how each incarnation views its own demise and how it handles its approach. To be terribly cheery, with every moment that passes, you are one moment closer to your death. One may as well just get used to it, lol.

 

[Francine]

To be terribly cheery, with every moment that passes, you are one moment closer to your death. One may as well just get used to it, lol.

People pay good money and go on diets to limit themselves from extending to infinity in all directions in space, yet they seek religions that promise to make them unlimited in the direction of time. Go figure!

 

[methylatedghosts]

I'm going to live forever or die trying! So far so good!

Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:[26] "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death".

But here, I don't really get much meaning from it, and to me it's not really saying anything.

Maybe he was talking about fear of death. Stopping death being an enemy and instead making it, like Ymir said, a friend.

 

[The Great Architect]

I'm not sure if I should be afraid of death, or not. Many things have happened to me that make me feel as though dying is the least of my worries -- and I am only 20.

Even so, there are so many possibilities and new opportunities in life life; and I don't want to give them up, just to prove that I'm not afraid of dying.

 

[9harmony]

From the Baha'i Writings:​

32. O SON OF THE SUPREME!
I have made death a messenger of joy to thee. Wherefore dost thou grieve?
I made the light to shed on thee its splendor. Why dost thou veil thyself therefrom?
(Baha'u'llah, The Arabic Hidden Words)​

In my humble understanding....from what I gather all religions have tried to teach us, is that we are spiritual beings having a human experience. so although the body dies and decomposes, that is not our true reality. Our spirit continues on, and once we firmly grasp that and realize that death of the physical is actually a new birth into the spiritual realm, we will begin to understand the significance of verses like the above. ​

 

[Sunstone]

Who wants to live forever? Think of all the taxes you'd pay!

 

[YmirGF]

Who wants to live forever? Think of all the taxes you'd pay!

That and to live forever on this small rock would get "old" rather fast. My grandma, at 104, talks about being the last one alive from her childhood friends. Though she says it is nice to live a long time, it does get a bit sad, because so many of the people you loved over the years have died before you. She joked that it was sort of like missing a bus that only runs once every few hours.

 

[Francine]

That and to live forever on this small rock would get "old" rather fast. My grandma, at 104, talks about being the last one alive from her childhood friends. Though she says it is nice to live a long time, it does get a bit sad, because so many of the people you loved over the years have died before you. She joked that it was sort of like missing a bus that only runs once every few hours.

Or maybe like being the last one on the school bus because you live so far away from the schoolhouse and all your friends got off earlier. God will tell her, "It was a long ride, but welcome home."

 

[The Great Architect]

Or maybe like being the last one on the school bus because you live so far away from the schoolhouse and all your friends got off earlier. God will tell her, "It was a long ride, but welcome home."

That's nice, I like it. I can easily see that being the case.:angel2:

 

[kai]

no its just a fact of life people need to accept

 

[yossarian22]

Who wants to live forever? Think of all the taxes you'd pay!

But think of all the social security pay you could get!

 

[Francine]

But think of all the social security pay you could get!

When you got to about 130 the government would start to wonder, and then some very rich, very desperate, very old people would come looking for you to do an autopsy to find out why you lived so long. Your objection that "I'm not dead yet!" would go over like the same line in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.