From: "Xenophaneros Anartaxius anartax...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife]"
While I have no memories of past lives that I would consider valid, death
does seem like it would be an interesting experience to face, experiencing what
comes up as it approaches, if it does not come unexpectedly, in which case
anticipation or curiosity would be rendered moot.
I would suspect that even an unexpected bullet in the brain would leave time
for a quick "WTF?" Whether anything follows that "WTF?" or not, I suspect it
would still be a cool moment. :-)
I am finding as time goes on, I do not look back much any more, and also I do
not look forward much any more either, the sense of anticipation is extremely
low at this point.
Exactly. Thanks for getting it. That is precisely what I was hoping to convey
with what I posted. The very *concept* of spending one's last few moments on
Earth looking back at one's life is foreign to me. Looking back on one's life
and feeling BAD about it is even more foreign. Like you, I tend to live
primarily in Now, but without trying to. It really isn't a "having to try"
kinda thing -- it's more like my mind (whatever that is) is more comfortable in
the timeline we call Now than it is in the timeline we call either Past or
Future.
I do have to make make financial decisions, which requires I do think about
such things, but I do not get excited about new stuff any more except rarely.
If a new movie comes out, I don't care any more, and if I die before it comes
out on DVD or Blu-ray, it is not going to be a loss.
I wouldn't go that far. If I get a bullet in the brain before I get to see the
end of this final season of "Justified" and find out what happens to Ava, I'm
going to be a little pissed off. :-)
There are more things to see than I would every be able to see. So except for
logistical planning, life more and more centres on the current moment. And if
the current moment involves death, well, no one really has much to say about
that at that moment, do they?
Not much. Except I can imagine that one has the same choice they have at *any*
moment, which is to be IN the moment as opposed to being OUT of it. I honestly
can't *imagine* greeting the moment of my death -- the moment in which the
curtain concealing the greatest mystery there is is about to be pulled back --
by wanting to look away and look back into the Past and think about what I
might have left unfinished or unresolved back then, back in the Not Now. That
simply does not compute. The only thing that does is looking forward, with
anticipation.
Thanks, BTW, for upping the ante on conversation around here. It's
appreciated...
From: "TurquoiseBee turquoi...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife]"
<FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com>
To: "FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, February 12, 2015 6:29 AM
Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Last rites
I feel the way I do about the notion of reincarnation because of personal
experience 'remembering' previous lives and even 'remembering' the transit
through the Bardo between death and rebirth.
At the same time, I know that these 'memories' may be false, so I don't know
fersure what will happen at the moment of death. I've said this many times --
if it turns out that death is like the switching off of a light switch and
there is only blackness, then there will be no "me" to be disappointed, or to
even register the disappointment.
So for now I'm going to go with "looking forward" to what comes next, because
that strikes me as the best way to live one's life at ANY moment, not just
one's last.
But as for trying to link the notion of God to reincarnation, that's your
hangup, not mine. Millions of Buddhists believe in reincarnation without having
to believe that there is a God. The two concepts are not related in any way.
From: "s3raph...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife]" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com>
To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thursday, February 12, 2015 4:01 AM
Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: Last rites
Re "it's the end of the day here in sunny CA":
Ah! The sun! It's been a while since I saw that here in London.
I'm not irritated, never mind over-irritated. I do find it odd though that
Barry believes he's got an immortal soul and yet scoffs at the idea of "God".
How anyone could suppose that a materialist-naturalistic account of life could
justify belief in a post-death existence is beyond me.
---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <jamesalan735@...> wrote :
Goodness, don't you think you're getting a tad over-irritated? I know my
response is the trigger, not the cause of your over-the-top reaction, but
still...relax.
Yep, I could have been clearer. So, here's my corrected response to anartaxius'
comment:
You have not defined what it means for 'looking forward' to work. Looking
forwardto what comes next does not require that there is a 'next' for
lookingforward to work.
I'm not sure why I'm going to this trouble because I don't think you will be
able to understand the logic and/or the underlying assumptions in my response.
But, heh, it's the end of the day here in sunny CA...
---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <s3raphita@...> wrote :
Re "Looking forward to what comes next does not require that a next to exist
for looking forward to work. ":
WTF?! Is English not your first language?
Barry presumably believes that his good self will carry on existing in some
future state. If that strikes one as unlikely then looking back on one's past
and only life seems a reasonable way to spend one's last moments no?
Barry is also caricaturing Robert Anton Wilson's sense. RAW clearly wasn't
thinking of people he may have wound up on a Yahoo groups site (few of those
will be shedding tears tonight) but of former friends he'd perhaps let down or
loved ones he'd fallen out with. He wanted to get reconciled with those he'd
personally and intimately interacted with and so felt were a significant part
of his identity.
---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <jamesalan735@...> wrote :
You have not defined what looking forward to work means. Looking forward to
what comes next does not require that a next to exist for looking forward to
work.
---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <anartaxius@...> wrote :
This would not work if there is no next.
---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <turquoiseb@...> wrote :
The notion of spending my last moments concerned what others thought of me and
hoping for them to forgive me doesn't appeal to me. What I hope for at the
moment of death is a sense of expectation and looking forward to what comes
next. Looking forward strikes me as a more worthy way to "sum up a life" than
looking backwards does.
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