In all honesty, I can't see what's so scary about the big dark void of death. What was so bad about not being born? Death is the same thing.
Still, people suffer from fear of death, and it's the same reason that all human suffering exists, which I will explain (note: subjective bullshit alert, these are just ideas which make sense to me, I'm not saying they are literally true or not, just something I find helpful/logical/comforting, and above all, NOT scary).
The universe exists is a state of constant flux. This change is forever unceasing. That's a given. Everything in the universe is a result of this process of constant change, every atom, every planet, every chemical reaction, every life form. Nothing is excluded. Change dictates that nothing is forever, so that which has come into being will eventually come to pass and the energy which composes it will be transformed into something else. No stretches of logic there, pretty obvious I think. I feel that constant change is pretty much a universal "law" if there is one.
Now the whacky human/subjective element: People (and animals) are born with an very deeply imbedded instintual intelligence which causes them to be full of egocentric self-importance, it's needed for survival/natural selection. This is expressed as desire to reproduce and fear of death (reproducing and living to continue reproducing are our primary functions in life). This is also pretty evident/logical.
By fearing death, we are clinging to our own egos/lives, which of course eventually comes to pass and the energy/molecules are transformed into something else, as is the mode of the universe (of which we are a part).
Fearing death is not accepting that we will die, which is expressed as a desire to live forever, which goes against the universal law of constant change, which dictates nothing is forever. Therefore, fear of death is actually a lack of acceptance of the universal law of constant change. Everything changes, it's part of reality, and a person's own desire to retreat from change is what causes their suffering.
The universe is a lot like a river of flowing change (which I think is extremely beautiful). Change is neither good or bad, we may interpret it as such, but this is a subjective interpretation and not at all an accurate reflection of reality. The universe is simply flowing and changing and it does so independent of our opinions of whether or not this is a good or bad thing, it simply IS and does not adhere to our limited human notions whatsoever. We must not mistake our personal interpretations of reality for reality itself.
So we are left with a choice: Do we go with the flow of change and realize that ultimately it's above our personified notions of good/bad (accept the universal law of which we are an expression)? Or do we go against the flow of change and curse the very fabric of space/time itself which created us (knowing ultimately we are still subject to change and can do absolutely nothing about it)? Sadly, I feel most people go with the latter, but not by choice, it's by design (we are who we evolved to be, no more, no less). Therefore, I feal that fearing death is the natural thing to do, but it's not the only alternative, it can be overcome.
Going with the flow of change leads to acceptance, fearlessness, and happiness. Going against it causes fear and suffering. Suffering is a direct result of not accepting the universal law of change.
I hope thus far I haven't said anything that is the least bit illogical cuz now I'm going to go a little deeper into what I think is the cause of human suffering (subjective bullshit alert, just an interpretation)...
Humans are egocentric freaks. This inherent perception of selfness is the root of desire. Think about it, if there was no concept of ego/self, where would the desire come from and who/what would it serve? Egocentricity spawns desire. No logical leap there I think. Desire (spawned by ego) causes suffering because it causes people to go against the grain of universal change. If we had no desire, we would simply accept everything as it comes and we wouldn't suffering from the idea of death (an expression of the law of change).
Fear of death is the desire to live forever - which is a lack of acceptance of change. Desire is spawned from egocentricity and is the direct result of this egocentricity.
Therefore: ("->" is "leads to")
Ego -> Desire -> Retreating from Change -> Fear/Suffering
so..
Ego -> Fear/Suffering
Self creates desire which causes us to go against the flow of change which causes suffering. Ego -> Suffering.
If what I'm saying can be true/applicable to the human condition then it must stand to reason that negation of self -> less desire -> more acceptance of change -> no fear/suffering, and for me this totally worked and lead me to be the happy/fearless bastard that I am today. Could this work for everyone? Probably not, it's a turning about of the deepest seat of consciousness which houses the most primary/instinctual notions of selfhood and takes a great deal of effort and concentration, but it's totally possible and totally worth the effort cuz it is completely liberating. However, for a lot of people I think the idea of this death of "self" (letting go of their own inherent instincts) is too weird/scary to consider seriously. However, many people have done this already without thinking about it, for some people, selflessness becomes a natural state they fall into at a certain point in their life for whatever reason, typically between 18-23 if it's going to happen. 20 seems to the magic age I keep hearing from others, I was 19. I've had many many many people explain their experiences of selflessness and spritual experiences of melding with their environment and all of them speak of it like it is the most inspiring and insightful experience they ever have and love that I can explain their experience back to them in a logical way, as I have attempted to do here. An archer becomes one with his target, a pilot becomes one with his plane, a musician becomes one with his instrument. We all do this already to some extent, it's just that for some people (like me and those close to me in real life) it's become a philosophy and a way of life which has enriched us more than we ever thought possible.
I realize this may seem quite whacky to a lot of people. It's just a way of looking as the human condition and forever escaping the fear of death which plagues us by our very design. I realize this is not for everyone, but I also realize that many many people live their whole lives like this, not clinging to notions of self, not fearing death, and accepting reality as it comes without question. This is, imo, true liberation and true happiness. I don't think I've said anything at all illogical or outlandish, after all we ARE our environment and in the deepest sense we are not the partitioned egos which instinct insists we are, we are an expression of the universe, no more, no less, we are short-lived energy patterns which will soon return to the earth which spawned us. Is a tree really separate from the soil from which it is composed? It's the same elements, same energy - and so are we. Why must we be so egocentric and segregate ourselves from the universe and it's flow of constant change? We don't have to.
muwahah..
Satori
