The Feeling of Nothing

[kiwitt]

Post-2012 will not be any different to the forecast post-2000. There have been doom-sayers for years. Please ignore them.

 

[Akka]

What's the difference, duh...

Because one has already happened and I was not yet here, while the other WILL happen to me ?
Do I have to spell it out for you that things which will happen to someone have more influence on him that things which happened before he existed, even if they are basically the same things ?

 

[Hitti-Litti]

Considering that I was extremely pissed off and crying when I had to leave nothingness and enter this world, I'm looking forward to seeing what that blissful nothingness that I didn't want to leave is like.

 

[Tycho]

Mortality. That's what scares us all, even if we don't like to admit it. Fearing nothingness after death is natural, and we have a natural instinct to want to live for as long as we can and just a bit longer after that. Personally, the fear of death and what comes after is my biggest fear in life, more so than anything else. You don't think about it normally, but for me it comes up just when I am trying to go to sleep sometimes, or browsing the forums. Really a depressing thing, no?



Maybe I should take a philosophy class when I can.

 

[bathsheba666]

Because one has already happened and I was not yet here, while the other WILL happen to me ?
Do I have to spell it out for you that things which will happen to someone have more influence on him that things which happened before he existed, even if they are basically the same things ?

Nothing happened to you before you existed.
Nothing will happen to you after you exist.

These are not the same things, these are the same no things.
So nothing should have an influence over you.

A man, sitting in a restaurant, debating whether he will enjoy the meal more after he leaves, than he did before he arrived, is wasting the experience of the meal.

 

[Synobun]

Considering that I was extremely pissed off and crying when I had to leave nothingness and enter this world, I'm looking forward to seeing what that blissful nothingness that I didn't want to leave is like.

Well, that could be explained by the comfort the child has in the womb and is being forcefully removed from it, but that is a very interesting way of looking at it.

 

[Cutlass]

Nothingness after death is the most comforting possibility imaginable. It's the possibility of something after death which is unalterably terrifying.

 

[jtb1127]

Yes, eternity, even if it is pleasurable, sounds scary.

 

[Birdjaguar]

I find death to be a permanent loss, and permanent destruction. I am burying my last grandparent next month, and will have to listen to the solace of people envoking religious thinking. But I won't feel any of their relief. I still suffer the permanent loss, and my grandparent (who certainly didn't want to die) is gone forever.

Attachment is the source of suffering.

Now, my own nothingness doesn't bother me per se. I accept nothingness every evening, when I seek blessed relief from fatigue. If I was in enough pain, I'm sure I'd prefer nothingness to continuing. Heck, we only accept the nothingness of sleep because we're familiar with it. So, most of my death avoidance is actually pain avoidance.

Deep sleep (non REM) may be as close to a near death experience as we can get while living.

This is a good point. We actualy do not fear nothingness or even death. They are both natural part (at least ATM) of our everyday lives. We have developed attachments for the way we think of life and giving up these is what brings us pain and fear.

Can I present you with brief version of my wiew?
There is actualy only one reality/consciousness. For convenience lets call it God. That reality has expanded and from tiny portion of itself has created what we know as creation. In order to do that it did created opposite of itself, the Ignorance/Matter. So you can say that matter is God as well with all the capacities of God present in it but it is hidden an it is in process of evolution/manifestation of the hidden God. Slowly the consciousness is emerging from it by manifesting higher consciousness through Life and Mind and that manifestation is not over of course...

Nice post.



Where is it written that lack of ones individual consciousness equals nothingness? I think the fear stems from not knowing what lies beyond life and it is coupled with the fact that we are all pretty attached to ourselves. The potential loss of that self creates the suffering we call fear.

 

[Souron]

Attachment is the source of suffering.

Attachment is the source of love and happiness too. Usually it's worth it.

 

[G-Max]

Serious answer: a total absence of pain, a relief of all burden... how could anyone fear that? I've actually attempted suicide twice.

Joke answer: The Feeling of Nothing? I'll take "What is a condom" for $400, Alex.

 

[Dachs]

Joke answer: The Feeling of Nothing? I'll take "What is a condom" for $400, Alex.

Ooooh, good idea, bad execution.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Attachment is the source of love and happiness too. Usually it's worth it.

I think you have it backward. Attachment is how we respond to love. We want to preserve it. To extend it. To keep it with us. Our struggle to hang on to love creates our happiness.

 

[GenjiKhan]

There's nothing to worry about . If there's no supernatural being on the other side,you won't have to think about it while you're alive,because you don't know if this things exist and if it exists,how it would be . And if there's a mad supernatural being on the other side,that is angry because you didn't choose anything(which is the case of the atheist/agnostics),you could argue that no religion showed evidences that they're right and most of religions you've met are disgusting(just remember that this deity can't be omnipotent,omnipresent,omniscient and righteous at once,just like the "Problem of evil" showed) .

 

[El_Machinae]

Attachment is the source of suffering.

Is it? Or is that only the case with certain levels of cognition?

Sure, my loss of grandparents bothers me because I was fond of them.

But, is the captured fawn suffering because of attachment, or because there's a wolf pressing fangs into his neck?

I have a feeling that I'm putting way too much philosophical emphasis on the state of mind and its importance, judging by the poll results.

It might be the poll question itself. I am probably one of the most avidly anti-death people here, and (outside of the religious people, who believe in permanent souls) have a world view most hopeful of not dying, ever. And yet, I clicked 'no'. This is because I don't 'fear' nothingness. I intend to avoid it (and even believe this to be possible!), but the state of 'nothingness' is not, in itself, bad. It's the ceasing-to-exist that I don't want.

 

[Artifis]

Mine's a "yes but" answer.

Yes, I fear nothingness after death but:

a) I understand that this is probably due in part to my human arrogance to believe that there should be something to life after death. But then the universe, as far as I can tell, doesn't work that way.

b) It's not simply pure fear that strikes me. There's something deeper to it. I am struck with sadness whenever I think of the nothingness that will consume me after death. I'm sad because I won't be able to experience the beauty and wonder of life. I'm sad because I won't be able to see how humanity progresses in our existence. I'm sad because once I'm gone, I'm shut out from life, which I see as a gift.

 

[Akka]

Nothing happened to you before you existed.
Nothing will happen to you after you exist.

These are not the same things, these are the same no things.
So nothing should have an influence over you.

A man, sitting in a restaurant, debating whether he will enjoy the meal more after he leaves, than he did before he arrived, is wasting the experience of the meal.

Well, as long as you try so hard to not get the point, you'll continue to miss it, so it's pointless to try to explain it.

 

[Linkman226]

I disagree with the OP. There was a study done that demonstrated that religious people will go to far greater ends in the event of an incurable illness to prolong their lives then atheists/ agnostics.

I am no more afraid of death than I am of not yet being born. There is no difference between the two.

 

[Mechanicalsalvation]

@Gorak: I'm not entirely sure what you just asked me. Could you explain it a bit more thoroughly?

Oh, never mind I was just practising to improve my English...
But I believe what I have said was that what we see as play of many different forces is essentialy only one Thing or has only one Source.

Is it? Or is that only the case with certain levels of cognition?

Sure, my loss of grandparents bothers me because I was fond of them.

If you would be aware and familiar with the subtler plains of consciousness or socalled afterlife you wouldnt think of your granparents as lost or destroyed by death but you will be happy for them becouse you will understand it the same way like if they would have decided to move to some nice place like Hawaii or Bali. Just becouse we are ignorant of these realities and inner world and we are attached to our ignorant conceptions we suffer. But of course its absolutely normal to feel pain of loss of our dear ones. The pain we feel can be severe but it purifies and expands our psychic part so it is rather helpful then something detrimental.

Mine's a "yes but" answer.

Yes, I fear nothingness after death but:

a) I understand that this is probably due in part to my human arrogance to believe that there should be something to life after death. But then the universe, as far as I can tell, doesn't work that way.

I suspect it is rather your ignorance why you have this fear. If it was arrogance I would have to ask you: Arrogance to whom or to what?

b) It's not simply pure fear that strikes me. There's something deeper to it. I am struck with sadness whenever I think of the nothingness that will consume me after death. I'm sad because I won't be able to experience the beauty and wonder of life. I'm sad because I won't be able to see how humanity progresses in our existence. I'm sad because once I'm gone, I'm shut out from life, which I see as a gift.

Thats what we have talked before: attachment. To say that you see life as a gift is, in this instance, only a tricky way for our attachment to continue its existence...

I am no more afraid of death than I am of not yet being born. There is no difference between the two.

Anyhow, according to Akka you are probably just another guy trying hard to miss the point...

 

[REDY]

I am fine with nothingless. I have more fear with possibility of after-life.