I have never related to "fear of death"

[cetus]

16 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

You are all so brave, contemplating death in the abstract behind a keyboard.

When actual death comes nipping at your heels like a crocodile, you will see how different things get.

The lava is the fire that licks your boots away. -Genisis (the band) from Dance on a Volcano.

Edited 14 hours ago by cetus

[Phil King]

Yeah im calling BS on everyone saying theyre not scared of death. Easy to say that when youre not face to face with complete annihilation. Its literally a biological response thats programmed into your DNA through millions of years of evolution. 

I remember recently a wrong way driver was barreling head on down my side of the road at 60+ mph and I literally felt my body and mind tense up and fear take over. It wasnt a conscious choice, just an immediate biological reaction and i doubt any amount of yoga or meditation could have helped. I literally prayed and thanked God afterwards for not killing me right there. If you can experience that or some equivalent like being robbed at gun point completely calm, then maybe your claims will have some legs to stand on

Edited 13 hours ago by Phil King

[Natasha Tori Maru]

I am terribly afraid of the process of dying. The dying part.

I've seen quite a bit of varied ways we can go out.

Some I would never...

Emphysema was traumatic to witness - slow. 

Seen multiple births and deaths. 

[Hojo]

@Phil King Its can.

Death is psychological.

When you see the car and get scared the process is psychological before physical.

You are doing it.

Edited 12 hours ago by Hojo

[Yimpa]

1 hour ago, Phil King said:

thanked God afterwards for not killing me right there

In a sense, the terrifying experience died. Pretty meta, huh?

[Mellowmarsh]

21 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

If anything, you guys underestimate how horrifying death will be. You are treating it way too abstractly, from the comfort of your armchair.

Fear doesn’t kill you. Fear is what keeps you alive. Fear is what keeps the sense of self alive, forever trapped in the illusion known as the dream of separation known as the eternal dream you are dreaming. No dreamt character gets out of the dream alive because no character in the dream is alive to begin with, because a dream only appears to be real in its conception known.
Horror is witnessed, it is felt as a real horror within the dream, but the dreamer remains forever untouched by the horror upon awakening to the illusion of the horror. For any dream to become known to have occurred, there must be always a dreamer that is able to awaken from the dream to know the dream has actually occurred, instantaneously recognising that nothing actually happened.
 

[AION]

I’m more afraid of being crippled than dying. Dying is mercy by nature. 

[Breakingthewall]

Being afraid of death is narcissism. You know that you are absolutely certain to die, so living coherently means accepting this fact completely and keeping it in mind at every moment.

All of us have some compound of narcissism or self deception, but it's important to see it, not inventing parallel realities 

[Someone here]

Death is not simply an event but it is a process. Unless it comes instantly..in deep sleep..through immediate force like a gun to the head or being beheaded or another truly instantaneous cause..the body and mind often pass through a period of profound struggle.  Obviously I wish to die instantly . The more time it takes to die the more painful it is going to feel . And obviously it’s going to be the worst pain you’ve ever experienced in life.  Because In those moments..the ego has nowhere left to hide. The identity we spend a lifetime defending is going to die .

achievements..status..beliefs..possessions.. self-image etc all of that must go . And it is not going to be easy to let all that shit go because we’ve been holding on to it for our whole life .Death strips away every illusion of control and reminds us that despite everything we accumulate or accomplish we are ultimately powerless before it.

This is why so many spiritual traditions place such importance on surrender while we are still alive. The practice is not about weakness  but willingly releasing the ego before life eventually forces us to. If we learn to let go of our attachment to the self now we may meet death with far less resistance and fear . It’s in our hands to reduce fear and resistance but not in our hands to reduce the pain .

In fact ..entire spiritual paths are built around this principle. The word “ Islam”literally means “submission” or “surrender” to the will of god and the reality that there is something greater than the individual ego.

Perhaps the deepest spiritual practice is to die before you die or just surrender completely. You will have to do it anyways..so why not doing it consciously instead of unconsciously?