Contemplating Death

[smd]

A couple of nights ago before going to sleep, I was alone and it was very quiet.  I started to think that perhaps if I died right then & there, it might take a few days before someone would find the body.  I wasn't feeling lonely but just felt a stark analysis of my life coming into view.  And then it came to me.

I started to think about a news report in which a young man went to Yellowstone National Park and went off-path to find a hot spring.  He fell into it and dissolved.  I put myself in his shoes.  Here I am with a full young life in my early 20s.  I'm walking towards a hot spring & then I trip & fall in.  Nobody can help me & then nearly at once, I'm gone entirely.  No body at all.  Eaten & digested by Yellowstone.  Where am I?   It appeared to be a reality-based, head-first dive into the abyss. Internally in my mind, I felt that sort of effect you get after 40 minutes of meditation...difficult to describe...sort of like a subtraction of yourself from the environment I suppose.  I repeated the simulation a few more times in my head.

Anyhow,  I wanted to pass on this thought as typically I've always thought of having a body after being dead, but then you have these extreme cases where you become nothing in water so hot that it's practically liquid plasma.  You become nothing in an instant.  Or what do you become?  Could be a koan in there somewhere..

[Leo Gura]

@smd It's hard to accurately understand what you'll become without knowing what you presently are.

That body is an illusion. It doesn't actually exist as an object. It never has. It's more of a pleasant story you tell yourself, cause otherwise, what would you be?

Here's something to ponder about: What if this feeling that you are that body is actually arbitrary, and NOT you?! Imagine for a second that that entire body is just like a coffee table, existing there, but actually not you.

Funny enough, that's true! Hehe.... what a ridiculous situation we find ourselves in. How can something SO obvious go unnoticed?

And yet, even now, as you look into this, you can't help shake the feeling that that body is you. That's clearly untrue, and yet you still can't stop believing in it.

[Greatnestwithin]

1 hour ago, Leo Gura said:

That body is an illusion. It doesn't actually exist as an object

@Leo Gura could you please elaborate on that? 

1 hour ago, Leo Gura said:

 

[jse]

@Greatnestwithin, maybe Mark Twain can help you here...

[aEOf]

On 12/8/2016 at 5:21 AM, Leo Gura said:

@smd It's hard to accurately understand what you'll become without knowing what you presently are.

That body is an illusion. It doesn't actually exist as an object. It never has. It's more of a pleasant story you tell yourself, cause otherwise, what would you be?

Here's something to ponder about: What if this feeling that you are that body is actually arbitrary, and NOT you?! Imagine for a second that that entire body is just like a coffee table, existing there, but actually not you.

Funny enough, that's true! Hehe.... what a ridiculous situation we find ourselves in. How can something SO obvious go unnoticed?

And yet, even now, as you look into this, you can't help shake the feeling that that body is you. That's clearly untrue, and yet you still can't stop believing in it.

Jesus said, "If the flesh came into being because of spirit, that is a marvel, but if spirit came into being because of the body, that is a marvel of marvels." - "Gospel of Thomas"