(no subject)

[novapsyche]

Please answer both questions if either at all.

1. Have you overcome your fear of death?
2. Do you believe in God, as you understand the concept of God?

Comments

[ytterbius.livejournal.com]

1: Mostly. I worry about the kids being without me, and dealing with my death more than anything.

2: I understand God only as existance itself. I don't plan on an afterlife.

[calya.livejournal.com]

HI. I know I'm not on your friendslist, but I read your journal regularly and I've commented once or twice. I found you in LjPoets and friended you. I think you are an admirable person and a brilliant poet. Anyway, here are my responses to your questions.
1. Have you overcome your fear of death?
No. I never used to be afraid of dying, but ever since I started following a non-Christian spiritual path, my spiritual pre-conditioning has kicked in and said: "Well, if you die and aren't Christian, won't you be damned?" I don't honestly believe that, but yet I think part of my subconscious mind must because I sometimes think about it. I am very afraid to die in pain, and afraid to die, only to find that there is nothing on the other side or that hell actually does exist.
2. Do you believe in God, as you understand the concept of God?
Absolutely. I conceive of god as both a god and a goddess: two aspects of one deity. I try to acknowledge both the father and the mother. I definitely believe that a higher power, by whatever name, exists and is watching out for us. I wonder if he/she/they/it laments giving us the power of free will. *Grin* Sometimes I just call God You. That way, I don't have to follo anyone else's concept of God and can just embrace the divine in my own way.

[revxaos.livejournal.com]

1. I believe so. Yes. The only experience I have with this is how I handled my father's death.

2. I believe there is something beyond the physical/material plane. What it is, and if it is aware, I do not know.

Namaste,
RX

[simplewhore.livejournal.com]

1. It is the End and Beginning of an Eternal cycle, it is not a thing to fear.

2. God is in the eharts and voices of Man, and I will never understand man.

[inhumandecency.livejournal.com]

1) The thought of my death has the ability to make me extremely worried and uncomfortable, but I rarely think about it. I generally work with a time horizon of ten years at the very, very most, but compensate for this shortsightedness by cultivating an enjoyment for things that have long-term value. I would say that fear of death rarely interferes with my life in explicit form.

2) I understand the concept of God to have a wide variety of meanings, and there isn't one I've decided to privilege. Some are so vague (e.g., an emergent sense of universal order) that I can believe in them, but it's unclear why it would matter. Others are mythic and evocative and I can believe in them selectively. My most generalized definition for God is a single principle which underlies all existence and with which humans can live in some kind of human-like communication, communion, or relationship. I think we can and should have experiences of God, but I don't experience any single phenomenon consistently enough to say I really believe in it independently of my perception.

Death Where is Thy Squirt

[squirthedgehawk.livejournal.com]

1. Have you overcome your fear of death?

As any out of body survivor will assure you

THERE IS NO DEATH.

2. Do you believe in God,
as you understand the concept of God?

it is written: Lean not on your own understanding.
there's a whole lot more scribbled down also...

[kittenkissies.livejournal.com]

1. Not entirely
2. Yes.

[prema.livejournal.com]

1. I've never really feared death, especially my own. I strongly believe that I (my consciousness) does not die or cease to exist. I do however am uneasy with losing the physical presence of others close to me. As a Baha'i, there is an often quoted verse that I find very true:

O SON OF THE SUPREME! I have made death a messenger of joy to thee. Wherefore dost thou grieve? I made the light to shed on thee its splendor. Why dost thou veil thyself therefrom?

2. Yes I do believe in God - generally the same one which Muslims, Christians, Hindus, Jews, Baha'is and every other major spiritual movment believes in. They just have different ways of expressing it. Incidentally, it is probably worth pointing out here that Hindusim is not polytheistic, the Bhagavad-gita stresses that only a single omniscient Being is God. Just thgouth I'd qualify why I included Hindusim in that list. I would get into Buddhism in the same manner, but it is a loooong discussion, it always bothers me when ppl who are practicing the Buddhist faith speak of the non existence of God per se.

[sophiaserpentia.livejournal.com]

1. Yes. (But not my fear of painful death. Just my fear of being dead.)
2. Yes.

[0bfuscate.livejournal.com]

Hey... you seemed cool, so I added you. If you want me to take you off, just let me know.

[euziere.livejournal.com]

1. I've never been afraid of death. I find it comforting to know that all things pass and change.

2. I'm not aware of any concepts of God that I believe in. I'm very interested in the cognitive underpinnings of religion and belief in religion, though.

[inhumandecency.livejournal.com]

The absoluteness of change doesn't help me with death. I can imagine giving up my fear of personal dissolution, but that makes me feel even more desire to contribute something beautiful in the long view. I feel like valuing something makes me want to be part of a story about it. So even at my most enlightened, I don't want to die without doing something good.

you don't really want to live that way, either

That seem promising...

[padpedpladuk.livejournal.com]

1. Hm - enough so that just ignoring it works fairly well. I ascribe to the holographic universe thingy where everything that is and has been and may be and might have been is all there at once, way out there somewhere.

2. Mm, yeah, She's sort of the hologram.

[eleri.livejournal.com]

1. Death is not scary. The *process* of dying doesn't sound particularily pleasant in most cases, but death isn't scary. Really living, now *thats* terrifying.

2. Since God is shaped by how I believe in it, then yes.

[netmouse.livejournal.com]

1.
a) I overcome my fear of death every time I drive on the freeway
b) I don't believe fear of death is something that one ought to overcome completely, in that I believe it is the other side of hoping for life.

I fear death, yes. I used to fear it mostly because I feared that people would be unaffected, that I was not loved or thought of, and that I would quickly pass into obscurity, having accomplished nothing. That thought doesn't bother me so much anymore. Now I mainly fear ending. The holistic side of me believes that I, as god, and as atoms, will go on being an integral part of the universe, but I am equally convinced that my awareness of myself as I am now, my life as a human, will end. I'm not ready for that. It terrifies me.

2. yes.

[voiceandsalt.livejournal.com]

1. i'm still afraid of death in an instinctual way. also, now that gestator is rooting its way into my life, there's something at stake. so lately i've been realizing that 32 is not so young anymore, and all of those bad habits are catching up with me, and i should take care that i'll still be around when my kid grows up. my partner's grandmother is 91 and shows no signs of her mind dimming, and can still move around ok. i find it so encouraging that i could have so much time left -- maybe i can actually get to all those things i've never done, make up for all that time i wasted doing stupid shit (or nothing)...

2. i believe there is consciousness within consciousness within consciousness, so many levels of experience and reality above and below ours. i think god is the consciousness above us. something like i am a neuron in god's vast mind.