What really happens after death?

[EternalForest]

I've been pondering this and researching this for years and still haven't come to any meaningful conclusion.  I just can't accept any of the current explanations from science or religion, too many explanations and none feel completely right. I can't believe that there's nothing at all after death, but it's also hard for me to believe that if I don't worship the "correct" deity I'll be deprived any sort of afterlife.  Seems cruel, since there's no way for us to know what the correct deity is (if there is one) until the moment of death itself. Surely if I knew what the correct deity was I would worship it. Why the guessing game?

Some say you are reincarnated and never truly die, while others say only your ego dies and after death you discover your true form. Not to mention, what will become of our memories? Are they preserved, as seen in children with "past lives", or are they erased forever? The explanations are seemingly endless, but my heart tells me there can only be one correct answer, and I haven't found it yet. 

I'd love to hear the forum's thoughts on this.

[Gabriel Antonio]

Why worry about death? There's so much to figure out about life. 

[EternalForest]

@Gabriel Antonio I'm not "worried" about it per se, when my times comes it'll come. It's just something worth being curious about, I suppose.

[Gabriel Antonio]

Thought provokingimage:

Edited April 8, 2019 by Gabriel Antonio

[tecladocasio]

@EternalForest the same as before you were born , remember ?

Edited April 8, 2019 by tecladocasio

[mandyjw]

We're all just one. The whole thing is alive. Death and separation are illusion. 

Love is all there is in life. It has a sharply biting flip side. I'll put my hand in the cage and pet the Lion anyway. He knows me, he loves me. 

[Jkris]

@EternalForest To this question to a zen master the reply was ask this question to me after my death. 

Meaning you will never find answer to this question. IMO yo seize to exist like deep sleep. 

[kieranperez]

Do you just want another answer?

The bottom line is you don’t know. 

Unless you set out to question towards the truth of what you are (and also be honest with what you’re currently identified with), any answer you get is third party heresay and belief (even it makes sense to you conceptually) and serves as another obstacle in your inquiry. 

What did you look like before you were born?

What will you be when you die?

You have to actually want to know for yourself and have a relentless willingness to seek this out. 

[Nahm]

2 hours ago, EternalForest said:

I've been pondering this and researching this for years and still haven't come to any meaningful conclusion. 

Some people feel a strong pull ‘home’ , through the subject of death. An innate relentless desire which is a more major facet of their path. It is a very unique and rare Calling. It is nothing to have concern or lose any sleep over. It is a gift, of a long term & very worthwhile nature.   

I just can't accept any of the current explanations from science or religion, too many explanations and none feel completely right.

That is a gift. Note you are trusting only your feelings....”none feel completely right”. Your desire will only be quenched when your knowing is not only felt, but complete, and right. Also from your first intuitive comment, the knowing must be meaningful and conclusive. That is no small order there. Totally possibly though. 

I can't believe that there's nothing at all after death,

Nor should you adopt beliefs. Instead, liberate the mind from twoness (duality / thinking), by contemplating the opposite of the perspective you’re currently inquiring from.......”I can believe that there is everything and no death”...not until it is believed, rather, until you feel it has ‘cancelled out’ the attachment to the initial  perspective. 

but it's also hard for me to believe that if I don't worship the "correct" deity I'll be deprived any sort of afterlife.  Surely if I knew what the correct deity was I would worship it.

This is just thinking, based on the assumptions there are deities, afterlife, “correct” choices. Let that “choosing a deity” paradigm go. You’ve never experienced any to consider making a choice between. 

Seems cruel, since there's no way for us to know what the correct deity is (if there is one) until the moment of death itself.

A “correct deity” can’t be “known” because that’s a belief. It is already known, to you, as a belief.  That’d be like me saying I don’t know if the unicorns are on Mars or Jupiter, and asking people to help you know the true answer.           The actuality of the situation, of reality, of “if there is one”,however...The Truth...including death, can be known. It is apparently very rare, but tell that to a three legged one eyed albino parrot, and it’s like ”huh?”  (don’t let the fact that practically no one knows & understands this discourage your desire to know. It is a matter of self discovery, not odds, and certainly not majority, intelligence, stature or authority.)

Why the guessing game?

Awesome question. No one can think the answer - why is that, what does that make you aware of?   What is the nature of that ‘situation’?   Just for a contemplation exercise, assume there is a perfectly logical finely tuned reason for the nature of this. Ponder, what is the flip side of this? Because it is a guessing game - so what is it which would make that make sense? (Not sense as in a thinkable answer, but sense of why it is that way - the “guessing game”.

Some say you are reincarnated and never truly die, while others say only your ego dies and after death you discover your true form. Not to mention, what will become of our memories? Are they preserved, as seen in children with "past lives", or are they erased forever? The explanations are seemingly endless,  

All of that is overthinking (monkey mind), re-read it from that perspective (as much as you can). Pick it apart, one single word at a time. Reveal each word’s origin relative to you, and you’ll see through it’s falsity. 

 

“but my heart tells me there can only be one correct answer, and I haven't found it yet.”

So listen more deeply. Ask your heart.   What else does it tell you?  How often are you really consciously listening to it? A post? When on the forum? Mood driven? Weekends? “Lately”? 

 

 

[ajasatya]

@EternalForest how come you are alive right now? figure that out and you'll know about death.

[Moonturnsthetides]

Nothing just like before birth 

[Hsinav]

Nothing in particular will happen.

You can not experience a state of non-existence. 

Edited April 8, 2019 by Hsinav

[EternalForest]

I'm glad you view this sort of curiosity of about the nature of life and death to be a gift. So many consider it be unhealthy to sit and think about your own death, but I personally find it fascinating. I'll try and contemplate it from different perspectives in the way you mentioned. It's hard not latch onto the dogma of choosing a deity as its been something I've been taught about since I was a child. 

 

"don’t let the fact that practically no one knows & understands this discourage your desire to know. It is a matter of self discovery, not odds, and certainly not majority, intelligence, stature or authority...No one can think the answer - why is that, what does that make you aware of?   What is the nature of that ‘situation’?....why it is that way - the “guessing game”."

 

You seem to be implying that the Truth is possible to know but it's impossible to communicate. The reason things are this way, is that no one can actually share the answer with me, I have to discover it for myself.

 

"All of that is overthinking (monkey mind), re-read it from that perspective (as much as you can). Pick it apart, one single word at a time. Reveal each word’s origin relative to you, and you’ll see through it’s falsity. "

 

You're saying that I can't consider any of that knowledge or theory as holding any credibility because I haven't experienced it first hand, but what am I left with if I take that thought process to its ultimate end? That no one else's word is any good? That research is, at the end of the day, speculation and nothing more?

 

"How often are you really consciously listening to it? A post? When on the forum? Mood driven? Weekends? “Lately”? "

 

Hard to answer. Definitely not as much as I possibly could be.

[Nahm]

1 hour ago, EternalForest said:

You're saying that I can't consider any of that knowledge or theory as holding any credibility because I haven't experienced it first hand, but what am I left with if I take that thought process to its ultimate end? That no one else's word is any good? That research is, at the end of the day, speculation and nothing more?

It expands your mind, so Truth can be accepted / realized.    But as not to form a belief, or attach to any specific view, un-twoness each perspective after it is understood. 

 

1 hour ago, EternalForest said:

Definitely not as much as I possibly could be

Tune in, all day, everyday. Even while you sleep. 

[AlwaysBeNice]

Every moment is birth/death, and thus illusion, an appearance.

So 1. this isn't really real, and you are already beyond.

So, appearances can appear, who knows what happens in 1 second,  you don't, so death is also a mystery.

But this has already appeared, and dreams can appear, who says that can't happen again, we live in the infinite, which can't be born or die.

[FoxFoxFox]

@EternalForest You cannot really die. What dies is the body. What happens to you when you go to sleep? That is short death. When the body dies that is a longer death. Its up to you to decide waking up again.

[tsuki]

10 hours ago, EternalForest said:

What really happens after death?

The same thing that happened before you were born.
"I don't know" is a genuine answer and you need to learn to appreciate the feeling that comes with it.
It is the feeling of being alive in vast, nauseating openness that the mind tries to solve. Spoiler alert: it won't.

[Nahm]

@EternalForest

The Self creates the ‘self’, the ‘self’ creates illusion. Such is the backtracking, to “death”.

? 

[EternalForest]

@FoxFoxFox

3 hours ago, tsuki said:

"I don't know" is a genuine answer and you need to learn to appreciate the feeling that comes with it.

In a sense, I agree. But in another sense, if you took that attitude towards everything you'd have no thirst for knowledge and become complacent in ignorance.

[EternalForest]

@FoxFoxFox How do you know?