Don’t Be Afraid Of Dying
Dying
gradually ceasing to exist or function; in decline and about to disappear.
This idea has been one of those that I’ve dabbled with for a long time with hardly any actual progress. Or at least the kind of progress that I was after.
It was always quite terrifying to imagine: disappearing into this eternal pool of nothingness. The thought of leaving. Not being able to experience, not being able to be present anymore.
Logically, there didn’t seem to be many apparent reasons for the individual to live beside the natural one. However, there was an unlimited amount of subjectivity that people created across time, places, and cultures about the concept of death.
A few dreaded the idea of dying. Others thought of it as a new beginning, a punishment, or a way into another world.
I obviously don’t want to die, but I will & I have to accept that. I really have no other choice. So, what to do then?
Options
I think once you’ve thought about it, you come to a realization that worrying about it is just a waste of your time: it worries you, saddens you, brings you down, and overall adds negativity to your life.
The only solution is to focus on changing your perspective.
You can lose all motivation and live a life of regret and constant moments of unnecessary sadness, or you can put that aside, and instead enjoy the rest of your limited existence in whatever way you deem fair.
We can use the argument by comparison, that anything that exists will revert to not existing after some point in time. Or that everyone around me will probably face the same ending for thousands of years to come.
Going back to the beginning, with regards with death being so terrifying, after evaluating almost everything that I have, I concluded that it’s better to say that death is just death, it’s not bad, it’s not good, it just is. In some sense it makes our lives be somewhat better. It makes our lives be worthwhile. You could even say it’s what gives us happiness.
But whatever it is. It doesn’t matter. It’s happening, and we can’t change it.
A Better Perspective
I think that it’s better to simply appreciate the fact that we were able to come into existence in the first place: to experience life for just a few decades.
I’m sure if you were to ask a pile of atoms if they would like to experience life, they would probably say yes even if they knew there was no point in it.
The truth is that we can’t really experience nothingness. The nothingness that comes after our death. When we die, our experience is banished. We are not there to see its aftermath. We are not there to do much about it.
Placing my hand over my left eye, I register the world only through my opened eye and not the covered one. I think it’s the same while we exist, I imagine the end and the beginning of my experience to be just like my left eye, and the experience just like my uncovered eye.
Final Thoughts
It will come, in a few years, in a few weeks, in a few decades, it’s bound to come. Our emotions, our desires, to be remembered, to be loved, etc. all become arbitrary once we are gone. And we have no say in it.
It’d be amazing if someone could create a way that allowed us to consciously remain in existence, but for now, I’ll enjoy the little things in life. I’ll create relationships with others, I’ll fall in love, I’ll mourn, maybe contribute to humanity, get into tech, get into art, music, get into something.
If you want to leave a mark in the world, you can leave a mark. We live in a deterministic universe that limits us to our desires, so fulfill those desires as much as you can. In the grand scheme of things, we may be a tiny piece of the universe or whatnot, but it doesn’t change the fact that our actions really do matter, and that they do lead to more.
I still encourage people to remind themselves of what is to come, but only to the extent where it is helpful and not to the extent where it creates anxiety and depletes all motivation.
In the end, I think that you should do whatever the hell you want so as long as you keep going. The present moment is our moment.
