joelpires

I'm a newbie and this is actually my first topic here. I see that multiple people here seem to have a more clear understanding of what death really is - either by experiencing ego death in their lives in the past or by rationally understanding the misconceptions that reside in the traditional definition of death and the fear of it. One thing tho is bugging me...how many of us will Really Accept death - not in these moments now in which we are intellectualizing it while reading posts in the forums or seeing youtube videos or having psychedelic trips while we know very well our health is not in danger - but really when for example devastating news about your health happens? Imagine for example that we just know that we have terminal cancer, how much of this previous work will help us avoid the existential anxiety, the extreme dread and pain, the panic and agony of your ego knowing that it is about to stop forever? Will you be at peace moments before your death? Are you ready to accept a drastic change in your health conditions? Is this control over your emotions even possible? Or all this spiritual work to understand death works as coping mechanism to live fearless in the quotidian but it can be irrationally shattered in an instant once you know that this is over, that 'lights will turn off exactly in a week' for example?

@OldManCorcoran aahah same, young man here that wants to experience more from life...always have been stressed and anxious for the future and things that I want to do. But last year when I thought I really was having a critical failure of my organs I understood that the anxiety I just described is nothing compared to existential anxiety, existential dread or despair in which ceasing existence just gets r e a l l y R e a l to you - horrible feeling... So yeah, just like you I believe that I prefer to die in a sudden accident xDD

@Naturalist so my question is, how does all this understanding help when 'shit gets real'? Did already happen to you a situation in which you thought you were dying (tragic health news, a random dangerous/criminal situation, etc) in which you could control existential anxiety or a fight-or-flight response because you understand that death doesn't exist after all? One thing I see for sure - understanding death helps to live day-to-day life freer from the constant fear of it, but in such critical situations my gut tells me that @UnbornTao is right

@puporing I think this is a good approach...sudden tragic news about your health won't affect you if you actually are capable of desiring to be dead. Not sure if that's possible tho because of the emotional attachments that we all invariably have. Not sure if the survival nature of ego allows you to desire to be dead when you know in fact it's really coming unless you were already 'dead'

@Princess Arabia yeah it seems a very reasonable point of view....you get an reminiscences of instinctive fear response but you can still find peace cuz u know the truth @michaelcycle00 damn, I guess I want that mentality ahah. Painless death is possible tho I believe man, lethal injections have the right mix of chemicals for you to die painlessly (physically ofc!)

@Hojo thanks

thanks for all the answers My gut tells me that this is the right answer. There were times that I was really afraid of my health condition and it is incredible to me how anxiety and panic responses in the brain switch on/off in seconds from when you think "omg this is it- it's over" to when you were informed that "there is nothing serious illness afterall". That's why I'm really wondering if the ego-death experiences that supposedly make you at peace with death are not thrown out of the window once the 'shit get's real and personal' Edit: now that I dug a little bit deeper, maybe this full acceptance of personal physical death in the imminence of it (no anxiety, no dread, completely fearless, etc) is attainable through Samadhi states

@FlyingLotus Thanks! You've been doing truly awesome work. I really appreciate it

a little bit off-topic I know sorry...but just wondering if someone has a transcription or summary of the video? This whole trilogy is immensely condensed and useful; sad that there's no text/transcription to study/highlight on