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 Icelander
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 Mr. Circastes. Spirituality and Death Anxiety's intimate connection. 
#14981874 - 08/26/11 02:44 PM (1 year, 8 months ago) |
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So when I said "mental masturbation" in the other thread I did not mean to say it was without value subjectively.
Here's how I see it. At some point in the evolutionary history of homo sapiens our brain development involved a brand new type of awareness. The awareness of impermanence and death. This ushered in something I call emotional/psychological suffering or generalized neurosis. This suffering or neurosis entailed our striving to either make "positive" things stay the way they currently were forever or to prevent "negative" inevitable things from happening to us. To do this effectively we created spirituality and philosophy among other things.
Now in all these years and centuries we still are chewing on these same issues, generation after generation. Chewing on these things does serve a purpose as a distraction however as we can obfuscate the core issues and ramble on and on creating philosophies and religions galore. And I'm not saying that humans don't actually make some headway against their anxieties and suffering.
But really, if you can accept this as a real possibility. knowing we die is the father of spirituality and philosophy and if you love and value these things you have death awareness to thank for it.
Was fear of death (and also it's effects of pain and decay) not an issue emotionally there would likely be little or no concerns about what is going to happen after life or because life is a problem because we likely wouldn't see it that way. We'd be treating it like like my dog does most likely, as a happening that is only taking place in the eternal moment.
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"Hang on tightly, let go lightly" -anonymous
“under the present brutal and primitive conditions on this planet, every person you meet should be regarded as one of the walking wounded. we have never seen a man or woman not slightly deranged by either anxiety or grief. we have never seen a totally sane human being.”
― Robert Anton Wilson
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 Hiro
Registered: 07/29/11
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Re: Mr. Circastes. Spirituality and Death Anxiety's intimate connection. [Re: Icelander]
#14982315 - 08/26/11 04:47 PM (1 year, 8 months ago) |
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cool haha
Quote:
Icelander said:
Was fear of death (and also it's effects of pain and decay) not an issue emotionally there would likely be little or no concerns about what is going to happen after life or because life is a problem because we likely wouldn't see it that way. We'd be treating it like like my dog does most likely, as a happening that is only taking place in the eternal moment.
Isn't that basically what we're trying to do here?
Also, I feel like I went through my whole "spiritual journey" if you could even call it that without much, if any, focus on death or fear. The most it got to with my understanding was that I was nothing and there was nothing to die, haha. "I," the ego, or just thoughts in general are created spontaneously in the moment and are just passing things, like a sensation. Then there are the actual senses which make up "reality" as you know it, and these are just sensations having nothing to do with good or bad, or any kind of thought about it(it just is). The thoughts come and go as it is and I try to not have them unless they are necessary which leaves the the senses/sensations/reality which is meaningless colors and sounds and shiz without thoughts/interpretations which will just cease in death(or not, I don't know what happens, but either way it's all just sensations or not but it doesn't matter because it just is what it is). It's like hardly a change to die, you just lose your environment and also def can't have any more thoughts, haha. Forced to just be, haha.
blazed again haha
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LunarEclipse
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Re: Mr. Circastes. Spirituality and Death Anxiety's intimate connection. [Re: Hiro]
#14982556 - 08/26/11 05:30 PM (1 year, 8 months ago) |
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i wonder how they make the dog do that?
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Don't submit to dogma.
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The Whale
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Re: Mr. Circastes. Spirituality and Death Anxiety's intimate connection. [Re: LunarEclipse]
#14982596 - 08/26/11 05:37 PM (1 year, 8 months ago) |
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I'm usually good at making abstract associations, but what's your point?
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LunarEclipse
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Re: Mr. Circastes. Spirituality and Death Anxiety's intimate connection. [Re: The Whale]
#14982607 - 08/26/11 05:40 PM (1 year, 8 months ago) |
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Quote:
The Whale said:
I'm usually good at making abstract associations, but what's your point?
That dog could care less about death, he's just happy singing with the band and getting a pat now and then.
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Don't submit to dogma.
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circastes
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Re: Mr. Circastes. Spirituality and Death Anxiety's intimate connection. [Re: Icelander]
#14984270 - 08/26/11 11:17 PM (1 year, 8 months ago) |
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Quote:
Icelander said:
So when I said "mental masturbation" in the other thread I did not mean to say it was without value subjectively.
Here's how I see it. At some point in the evolutionary history of homo sapiens our brain development involved a brand new type of awareness. The awareness of impermanence and death. This ushered in something I call emotional/psychological suffering or generalized neurosis. This suffering or neurosis entailed our striving to either make "positive" things stay the way they currently were forever or to prevent "negative" inevitable things from happening to us. To do this effectively we created spirituality and philosophy among other things.
Now in all these years and centuries we still are chewing on these same issues, generation after generation. Chewing on these things does serve a purpose as a distraction however as we can obfuscate the core issues and ramble on and on creating philosophies and religions galore. And I'm not saying that humans don't actually make some headway against their anxieties and suffering.
But really, if you can accept this as a real possibility. knowing we die is the father of spirituality and philosophy and if you love and value these things you have death awareness to thank for it.
Was fear of death (and also it's effects of pain and decay) not an issue emotionally there would likely be little or no concerns about what is going to happen after life or because life is a problem because we likely wouldn't see it that way. We'd be treating it like like my dog does most likely, as a happening that is only taking place in the eternal moment.
That sounds right. I mean, it's probably one of the better theories I've heard.
But what if it was more like the dawn of the reflective mind, and this reflective mind INVENTED death and a clock to tick towards it?
What if we're not alive right now? What's to say we are? What are we alive IN? We take sooo much for granted. It was all inherited, the way we think...
I think we should dig into these concepts we use and see what we're taking for granted.
What do we really want or need?
I bet the answer is 'nothing'.
It's all a show and it never began.
There is no natural state - there is no nature, there are no states.
It's ineffable and only effable things are 'really there'.
And what is it that's there? More assumptions, collation of our perceptual field into a 'meaningful whole' called 'reality'.
'Reality' is secretly just a term for what we're afraid of.
But what is there to fear? There's nothing but trees and scumbags 'out there'. You are already in your own kingdom, you have everything you need.
What's to lose when all there is, is you? 'You' can't be lost!
We're crazy monkies who got it mostly wrong.
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"Your salvation may lie in a rational apprehension of the present moment."
-Terence McKenna
she said there's good men
that there's God in everyone
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Icelander
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Re: Mr. Circastes. Spirituality and Death Anxiety's intimate connection. [Re: circastes]
#14984350 - 08/26/11 11:43 PM (1 year, 8 months ago) |
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But what if it was more like the dawn of the reflective mind, and this reflective mind INVENTED death and a clock to tick towards it?
Well in a sense we did psychologically invent death by recognizing impermanence and the future which does not exist, but as a material reality we do die, along with my dog other organisms. Or so it seems.
Of course everything is subjective for us so anything at all is possible I guess.
Now where this is interesting is that thread about the guy who wrote the 2000 page suicide note and then blew his brains out is basically asking the same questions as you are. If we truly need nothing then we don't need to be "alive". He was saying that we do always choose life however due to instinct and psychological fear etc. So he choose not to live as an experiment. Now let me ask you. Do you actually think you could do this? I mean quit drinking and feeding yourself because you don't need it?????????????????????
Answer as honestly as you can.
I do think you are on to something but I'm not so sure how it works. Maybe being "alive" is important somehow and maybe not.
As I see it we don't have answers that are viable for our circumstances. Or maybe we do but have a very hard time accepting them. Like the guy who chose to de condition his death fear until he could actually take that step. Or not.
I don't claim to have the answers here. However I can make a few choices about how I'm going to live and how neurotic I'm going to be about it and that is where I focus my energies these days.
Sorry for such a scattered post.
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"Hang on tightly, let go lightly" -anonymous
“under the present brutal and primitive conditions on this planet, every person you meet should be regarded as one of the walking wounded. we have never seen a man or woman not slightly deranged by either anxiety or grief. we have never seen a totally sane human being.”
― Robert Anton Wilson
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deff
just relax
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Re: Mr. Circastes. Spirituality and Death Anxiety's intimate connection. [Re: Icelander]
#14984364 - 08/26/11 11:47 PM (1 year, 8 months ago) |
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Quote:
Sorry for such a scattered post.
it was a good post 
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The Chronic
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Re: Mr. Circastes. Spirituality and Death Anxiety's intimate connection. [Re: Icelander]
#14985481 - 08/27/11 07:14 AM (1 year, 8 months ago) |
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If we couldn't contemplate death then we might be like the dog who lives in the moment, but we wouldn't consciously be aware of it.
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Icelander
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Re: Mr. Circastes. Spirituality and Death Anxiety's intimate connection. [Re: The Chronic]
#14985581 - 08/27/11 08:56 AM (1 year, 8 months ago) |
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Right, that's where the problems began, with awareness. The particular awareness of our own impermanence. That was something, as a species, we just couldn't handle. Funny and ironic when you think about it. 
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"Hang on tightly, let go lightly" -anonymous
“under the present brutal and primitive conditions on this planet, every person you meet should be regarded as one of the walking wounded. we have never seen a man or woman not slightly deranged by either anxiety or grief. we have never seen a totally sane human being.”
― Robert Anton Wilson
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lolwut
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Re: Mr. Circastes. Spirituality and Death Anxiety's intimate connection. [Re: Icelander]
#14985626 - 08/27/11 09:26 AM (1 year, 8 months ago) |
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Awareness of awareness, as Alan Watts would say. The fact we know we think, can analyse this, and think/analyse about what we think and analyse. The cause of all our evolutionary success/achievements/inventions etc, and the cause of all our existential angst. 
Worth it, imo.
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In old age Diogenes stopped a veteran and asked, “What were you in the last war?”
“Oh, I was only a private,” replied the veteran.
Diogenes rocked as if about to fall. “Ye gods!” he gasped. “At last!” Then after catching his breath he blew out his lantern and went home.
-Osho
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Icelander
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Re: Mr. Circastes. Spirituality and Death Anxiety's intimate connection. [Re: lolwut]
#14986115 - 08/27/11 12:49 PM (1 year, 8 months ago) |
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Worth it, imo.
Compared to what? It's all we know.
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"Hang on tightly, let go lightly" -anonymous
“under the present brutal and primitive conditions on this planet, every person you meet should be regarded as one of the walking wounded. we have never seen a man or woman not slightly deranged by either anxiety or grief. we have never seen a totally sane human being.”
― Robert Anton Wilson
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circastes
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Re: Mr. Circastes. Spirituality and Death Anxiety's intimate connection. [Re: Icelander]
#14988134 - 08/27/11 08:35 PM (1 year, 8 months ago) |
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Quote:
Icelander said:
But what if it was more like the dawn of the reflective mind, and this reflective mind INVENTED death and a clock to tick towards it?
Well in a sense we did psychologically invent death by recognizing impermanence and the future which does not exist, but as a material reality we do die, along with my dog other organisms. Or so it seems.
Of course everything is subjective for us so anything at all is possible I guess.
Now where this is interesting is that thread about the guy who wrote the 2000 page suicide note and then blew his brains out is basically asking the same questions as you are. If we truly need nothing then we don't need to be "alive". He was saying that we do always choose life however due to instinct and psychological fear etc. So he choose not to live as an experiment. Now let me ask you. Do you actually think you could do this? I mean quit drinking and feeding yourself because you don't need it?????????????????????
Answer as honestly as you can.
I do think you are on to something but I'm not so sure how it works. Maybe being "alive" is important somehow and maybe not.
As I see it we don't have answers that are viable for our circumstances. Or maybe we do but have a very hard time accepting them. Like the guy who chose to de condition his death fear until he could actually take that step. Or not.
I don't claim to have the answers here. However I can make a few choices about how I'm going to live and how neurotic I'm going to be about it and that is where I focus my energies these days.
Sorry for such a scattered post.
I think I might have miscommunicated my position a bit. I see food and water as a given. I know many millions don't. But it's very, very abstract, I've realised, to 'put myself in their shoes', for how different am I from the environment I live in? My body adjusts to its temperature, my eyes and emotions feel the presence of nature around, changing me... before I carry on too much: it obviously is me. I can live without an appendix. I can't live without a heart. The heart isn't any less me than the appendix. There is no 'me' in the skull, just some muscular tension around it for all I can tell. I can't live without food, so how am I different from the food I eat? That food is part of the organ that digests it, both are pointless and eventually 'die' without the other.
So does that kind of clear up the inanity of what this 2000-page guy did? And why I don't do it?
There's different kinds of needs. I think Abraham Maslow wrote a lot about this. If you eat, sleep and breathe just fine, well, you still have some kind of spiritual needs or philosophical/intellectual needs - but all I'm saying is: no, you don't. If you are 'biologically functioning', you don't need anything else. People think, but I need love don't I? No! Because love is what comes to you when you stop searching. I don't really know why. It's like the organism is just constructed so amazingly that in its highest states of uninterrupted function it just goes crazy and you feel grrreeeat.
That's what I mean, at this point, when I say you have no needs, or you are what you need etc.
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"Your salvation may lie in a rational apprehension of the present moment."
-Terence McKenna
she said there's good men
that there's God in everyone
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Icelander
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Re: Mr. Circastes. Spirituality and Death Anxiety's intimate connection. [Re: circastes]
#14988273 - 08/27/11 09:04 PM (1 year, 8 months ago) |
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Yeah that's clear for me and I agree. I've found awareness is key.
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"Hang on tightly, let go lightly" -anonymous
“under the present brutal and primitive conditions on this planet, every person you meet should be regarded as one of the walking wounded. we have never seen a man or woman not slightly deranged by either anxiety or grief. we have never seen a totally sane human being.”
― Robert Anton Wilson
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lolwut
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Re: Mr. Circastes. Spirituality and Death Anxiety's intimate connection. [Re: Icelander]
#14988738 - 08/27/11 10:41 PM (1 year, 8 months ago) |
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Quote:
Icelander said:
Worth it, imo.
Compared to what? It's all we know.
To being monkeys swinging in trees or cavemen throwing rocks at each other, or dogs running around...etc. Although dogs do have a good life, lol.
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In old age Diogenes stopped a veteran and asked, “What were you in the last war?”
“Oh, I was only a private,” replied the veteran.
Diogenes rocked as if about to fall. “Ye gods!” he gasped. “At last!” Then after catching his breath he blew out his lantern and went home.
-Osho
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Icelander
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Re: Mr. Circastes. Spirituality and Death Anxiety's intimate connection. [Re: lolwut]
#14988885 - 08/27/11 11:14 PM (1 year, 8 months ago) |
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So how do you know what an apes experience feels like? Or a cavemans? You can only view it through your own subjective experience which might be miles off the mark.
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"Hang on tightly, let go lightly" -anonymous
“under the present brutal and primitive conditions on this planet, every person you meet should be regarded as one of the walking wounded. we have never seen a man or woman not slightly deranged by either anxiety or grief. we have never seen a totally sane human being.”
― Robert Anton Wilson
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lolwut
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Re: Mr. Circastes. Spirituality and Death Anxiety's intimate connection. [Re: Icelander]
#14988959 - 08/27/11 11:37 PM (1 year, 8 months ago) |
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I'm talking more about what we've achieved as a race, and what we might be heading towards, than how they feel when they live. The apparent emotional shortcomings of our race resultant of our intelligence/awareness are a small price to pay for the ability to go to the moon, create worldwide instant information transmission, have good medical services, the future possibility of colonising other planets, and so on. I agree with you, for all we know cavemen or dogs etc could be completely blissed out, just acting on instinct all the time, without a care in the world, and it would be very nice to live that way. But they're not going to be able to create cars, or the internet etc, any time soon.
I guess my point is mainly that the advantages of being intelligent and having awareness of awareness and so on, such as greater communication, emotional depth, and potential for innovation, are worth the hard times we may sometimes go through when contemplating our own impermanence.
Besides, we don't know if other animals have death anxiety either. We know they act out of instinct to preserve their own life, and I've seen animals mourning the deaths/sudden removal of other animals. And dogs mourning the deaths of their owners..etc. Could somehow be related to recognising their own impermanence through the impermanence of others, or a sense of loss...either way they can have negative/sad emotions too, just like us.
The other side of it is, without knowing what bad/negative emotions are, you wouldn't be able to appreciate the good ones. If dogs live completely in the now and are blissed out, they wouldn't know it. Hence why they get so happy when their owner comes home or when it gets to feeding time, because it's above their "neutral state" of being (which to us might be complete bliss by comparison but to them it could be normal).
Damn it feels good to be a gangsta human 
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In old age Diogenes stopped a veteran and asked, “What were you in the last war?”
“Oh, I was only a private,” replied the veteran.
Diogenes rocked as if about to fall. “Ye gods!” he gasped. “At last!” Then after catching his breath he blew out his lantern and went home.
-Osho
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Icelander
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Posts: 79,903
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Re: Mr. Circastes. Spirituality and Death Anxiety's intimate connection. [Re: lolwut]
#14989234 - 08/28/11 12:39 AM (1 year, 8 months ago) |
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The apparent emotional shortcomings of our race resultant of our intelligence/awareness are a small price to pay for the ability to go to the moon, create worldwide instant information transmission, have good medical services, the future possibility of colonising other planets, and so on.
Very subjective. I don't agree. I'll take a healthy emotional base any day of the week.
Life is short and I'm not scheduled to go to the moon any time soon.
Good post though.
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"Hang on tightly, let go lightly" -anonymous
“under the present brutal and primitive conditions on this planet, every person you meet should be regarded as one of the walking wounded. we have never seen a man or woman not slightly deranged by either anxiety or grief. we have never seen a totally sane human being.”
― Robert Anton Wilson
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lolwut
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Re: Mr. Circastes. Spirituality and Death Anxiety's intimate connection. [Re: Icelander]
#14989402 - 08/28/11 01:19 AM (1 year, 8 months ago) |
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Hmm, I would say that just wanting to feel good is the subjective personal viewpoint. I was talking on an evolutionary level, of propagating life. I guess in the long term the universe will end anyway, so it doesn't make much difference - and of course you want to enjoy the time you have here.
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In old age Diogenes stopped a veteran and asked, “What were you in the last war?”
“Oh, I was only a private,” replied the veteran.
Diogenes rocked as if about to fall. “Ye gods!” he gasped. “At last!” Then after catching his breath he blew out his lantern and went home.
-Osho
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crkhd
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Re: Mr. Circastes. Spirituality and Death Anxiety's intimate connection. [Re: lolwut]
#14989874 - 08/28/11 07:17 AM (1 year, 8 months ago) |
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Hmmm...
What if enlightenment is the cessation of fear? What I mean is that a truly enlightened person has cleaned out their negative traces on reality. So their net contribution can only be good/neutral. In any circumstance, their actions are automatically the best actions because that is the very nature of enlightened thought. How can one go wrong when they are truly aware of and channeling perfection?
Now why do we desire things? We desire things only because of fear! We feel hungry because the body is afraid that food will not be around - death anxiety. We feel craving for things in fear that without them we are less than ourselves. Yet the truth is that your very nature is absolute perfection. I presume this is what Circastes was implying in the "nothing" thread. So to let go of all desires is to let go of fear totally.
Such is the illusory nature of reality. You go out looking for more and more to fill your soul when the reality is that its emptiness is utter perfection alone. No matter what you are chasing, you only recieve you. What flavour of you though! I see the cosmic joke here. To be satisfied with nothing, your relative net worth shoots far beyond Bill Gates could dream of, absolute LOL.
If you release all fear then there is no need to accumulate anything. Without desire, there is neither "too much", "too little" or "enough". There is, there just is!
Is this not the meaning of surrender?
Consider what death anxiety is. The utterly visceral mortal fear that something is going to go that was never yours in the first place.
I'm having a dhammapada flashback. What a text (HERE)!
Heartfelt thank you to all the people on the shroomery, love you guys so much!
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"Everything there is, and all that there is, is a Pattern of unspeakable proportion. The Pattern contains everything that is, completely fixed in succession, all the minimal particles interconnected in every way that is. Every way that is is not every conceivable way, because not everything that can be conceived is manifest in the pattern."
"THE Human, you, is a miniscule but essential part of that pattern. In it lies complete fulfillment. It will never become something it is not, but it will never need to be anything else." - Wiccan_Seeker
<i AM breath rippling through water|light reflecting to self with thought AM i>
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Icelander
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Re: Mr. Circastes. Spirituality and Death Anxiety's intimate connection. [Re: crkhd]
#14989999 - 08/28/11 08:57 AM (1 year, 8 months ago) |
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What if enlightenment is the cessation of fear? What I mean is that a truly enlightened person has cleaned out their negative traces on reality.
I agree. That would have to be the case imo. But here's the catch for me. I am far away from certain that any human can completely do it. 
The longer I live the more I'm guessing is that an awakening is the maximum in human potential and enlightenment, like unconditional love, is a benchmark to shoot for but ultimately unattainable.
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"Hang on tightly, let go lightly" -anonymous
“under the present brutal and primitive conditions on this planet, every person you meet should be regarded as one of the walking wounded. we have never seen a man or woman not slightly deranged by either anxiety or grief. we have never seen a totally sane human being.”
― Robert Anton Wilson
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deff
just relax
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Re: Mr. Circastes. Spirituality and Death Anxiety's intimate connection. [Re: Icelander]
#14990240 - 08/28/11 10:58 AM (1 year, 8 months ago) |
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you don't think there's people who have gone beyond fear?
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Poid
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Posts: 40,361
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Re: Mr. Circastes. Spirituality and Death Anxiety's intimate connection. [Re: deff]
#14990430 - 08/28/11 11:49 AM (1 year, 8 months ago) |
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You're saying that every person who commits suicide is fearless?
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Well I try my best to be just like I am, but everybody wants you to be just like them. -- Bob Dylan   fireworks_god said:It's one thing to simply enjoy a style of life that one enjoys, but it's another thing altogether to refer to another person's choice as "wrong" or to rationalize their behavior as being pathological or resulting from some sort of inadequacy or failing so as to create a sense of superiority or separation as yet another projection of a personal fear or control issue.
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deff
just relax
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Re: Mr. Circastes. Spirituality and Death Anxiety's intimate connection. [Re: Poid]
#14990554 - 08/28/11 12:16 PM (1 year, 8 months ago) |
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well i think if i wasn't afraid to set myself on fire, i wouldn't have many if any other fears either. to me, intense physical pain would be the hardest fear to overcome
of course though, not everyone who commits suicide is fearless
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Icelander
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Re: Mr. Circastes. Spirituality and Death Anxiety's intimate connection. [Re: deff]
#14990868 - 08/28/11 01:28 PM (1 year, 8 months ago) |
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Quote:
deff said:
you don't think there's people who have gone beyond fear?
It's an unknown. When young I knew many people who I considered fearless compared to me only to find out later there were areas where they were afraid of certain things and I was not. Of course they tried to hide them so only over time did they become evident. Normal behavior imo.
It's very hard to judge what goes on in another persons mind. Were I to have know this person in the picture for some time I might be able to make a better guess about whether is is completely fearless in all areas of life.
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"Hang on tightly, let go lightly" -anonymous
“under the present brutal and primitive conditions on this planet, every person you meet should be regarded as one of the walking wounded. we have never seen a man or woman not slightly deranged by either anxiety or grief. we have never seen a totally sane human being.”
― Robert Anton Wilson
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deff
just relax
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Re: Mr. Circastes. Spirituality and Death Anxiety's intimate connection. [Re: Icelander]
#14990873 - 08/28/11 01:29 PM (1 year, 8 months ago) |
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true
i'm not claiming he is or isn't, but i think it's an interesting case for sure
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Icelander
The Minstrel in the Gallery
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Re: Mr. Circastes. Spirituality and Death Anxiety's intimate connection. [Re: deff]
#14990991 - 08/28/11 01:55 PM (1 year, 8 months ago) |
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Very interesting. One of the most interesting I've ever seen. That's why I would love to know more.
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"Hang on tightly, let go lightly" -anonymous
“under the present brutal and primitive conditions on this planet, every person you meet should be regarded as one of the walking wounded. we have never seen a man or woman not slightly deranged by either anxiety or grief. we have never seen a totally sane human being.”
― Robert Anton Wilson
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Tony
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Re: Mr. Circastes. Spirituality and Death Anxiety's intimate connection. [Re: Icelander]
#14991898 - 08/28/11 05:05 PM (1 year, 8 months ago) |
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Quote:
whether is is completely fearless in all areas of life
Take a large sample of humans from different times and look at everything they've tried or done in their lifetime. Will any fearless act be left out of that list?
If not then collectively we are fearless, there is no "root" fear in that all-inclusiveness. How can there be a "root" anything, everything is expressed..
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Icelander
The Minstrel in the Gallery
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Re: Mr. Circastes. Spirituality and Death Anxiety's intimate connection. [Re: Tony]
#14992020 - 08/28/11 05:27 PM (1 year, 8 months ago) |
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A seemingly fearless act does not have to be fearless in actuality. For instance a soldier who goes forward in fierce battle where the odds are against him may be seen as fearless yet what might have provoked the seemingly fearless act might really be fear of seeming a coward to others or fear of the consequences of running instead.
Imo death anxiety or fear of impermanence effects everyone, if not on the conscious level then the unconscious and is the core fear for humans..
My two cents.
And looking at your statement from the other direction all fears have been expressed by humans so would that make us all fearful?
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"Hang on tightly, let go lightly" -anonymous
“under the present brutal and primitive conditions on this planet, every person you meet should be regarded as one of the walking wounded. we have never seen a man or woman not slightly deranged by either anxiety or grief. we have never seen a totally sane human being.”
― Robert Anton Wilson
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Tony
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Re: Mr. Circastes. Spirituality and Death Anxiety's intimate connection. [Re: Icelander]
#14992156 - 08/28/11 05:55 PM (1 year, 8 months ago) |
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The term uses "death" in a very general sense..
which is not surprising considering that no one can actually point at death and say that is it.
Almost like the word "life".
Or "love".
Or "I".
Or "whatever"..
whatever anxiety?
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Icelander
The Minstrel in the Gallery
Registered: 03/15/05
Posts: 79,903
Loc: underbelly
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Re: Mr. Circastes. Spirituality and Death Anxiety's intimate connection. [Re: Tony]
#14992344 - 08/28/11 06:34 PM (1 year, 8 months ago) |
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You don't need to know what the dark is to be afraid of it.
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"Hang on tightly, let go lightly" -anonymous
“under the present brutal and primitive conditions on this planet, every person you meet should be regarded as one of the walking wounded. we have never seen a man or woman not slightly deranged by either anxiety or grief. we have never seen a totally sane human being.”
― Robert Anton Wilson
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foliocb
Self-destruction...
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Re: Mr. Circastes. Spirituality and Death Anxiety's intimate connection. [Re: Icelander]
#14994707 - 08/29/11 03:56 AM (1 year, 8 months ago) |
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Quote:
Icelander said:
You don't need to know what the dark is to be afraid of it.
I think that's the point really, the fact that we don't know what lurks/may lurk on the other side.
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wat
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