Mama, take this badge off of me,
I can't use it anymore.
It's gettin' dark, too dark to see,
I feel like I'm knockin' on heaven's door.
--Eric Clapton & Bob Dylan, "Knockin' on Heaven's Door"
Last night, DW asked me out of the clear blue whether I believe in life after death. I responded that I honestly haven't thought much about it; that I like to believe that there is some kind of afterlife, but that I don't really know; and that I have no idea what it's like. Honestly, this isn't a topic I gave any thought to when I was an active church-goer. I took a pragmatic view of the issue--if I had faith and lived a good life as a good person, then things would take care of themselves.
The various Christian traditions have differing ideas about the nature of the afterlife and heaven, but at least they offer a great degree of certainty. Mormonism, with which I am the most familiar, claims that there are three degrees of heaven, and that we are assigned to one level or another based on faith and, especially, works during mortality. My favorite things about Mormon heaven are that families are kept together there (unless, of course, they're on different levels, then I have no idea how that would work) and that my kids will be at the top of the ladder, so to speak, because they cannot be held accountable for their actions in the same way that most of us can be. Also--and I don't know how doctrinal this is--my kids will no longer be disabled. I like that.
Zen, as I understand it, allows for differing beliefs on the afterlife, but purists probably would argue that the body dies and the life-force within the body remains as part of the great life-force that animates everything in the universe. Tibetan Buddhists generally believe in reincarnation, with one's form in the next life being based on actions in this life.
Once again, I feel embarassed to say that I don't know enough about Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, or other traditions to say anything about their views of the afterlife.
Do any of you, my gentle readers, have any thoughts on this topic?
Thursday, July 21, 2005
Afterlife, anybody?
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7 comments:
Sometimes, I really like the idea of spending eternity with my DH.
Sometimes, I really think the idea of an afterlife sucks. Endless sleep has its appeal.
I don't know, may never know, but I would like to think there is something better beyond and that my individuality carries on. I do know that when I die and there isn't anything more, I won't be around to concern myself with it like I do now.
I do know that life is a miracle no matter how you slice it, whether we are a product of a divine creation or infinitely small odd of evolution or something we haven't even thought about.
i posted the following related comment on the foyer earlier today.
i've been suffering a bit of existential angst myself lately, and this idea has been at the root of it. within the past month or so i've decided that there is a really good possibility that when we die that really is it, that our consciousness is a result of brain activity, and that once that stops that there is nothing else.
i'm not quite sure to what extent i ever bought into the whole mormon version of the afterlife, but for some reason i always thought that i would exist in some state or other, and that i would learn the mysteries of the universe. this is the one thing about death that i always looked forward to. i would finally know how the universe came to be, whether or not there is other intelligent life out there, what the world was like during different historical periods with dinosaurs or ancient empires, who killed jfk, and anything else i wanted to know.
this was always quite comforting to me for some reason or other, but now i think it's more likely that this life might be it, and that my consciousness will cease to exist as soon as i die. the thought of never having the opportunity to learn what's really out there and what's really happened is quite devastating to me.
has anyone ever experienced this kind of angst?
has anyone ever experienced this kind of angst?
Existential angst is the bane of my life for quite a while now.
I sincerely thought I was going crazy at some point, but then I remembered that really mad people don´t suffer from angst. (Damn! ;)
I tried to embrace several theories on the subject. At the moment I´ve settled into believing what Ecclesiastes, wrote towards the end of his book:
Then the man goes to his eternal home and mourners go about the streets (...) The dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
Which I interpret it to mean what you wrote above:
purists probably would argue that the body dies and the life-force within the body remains as part of the great life-force that animates everything in the universe.
I bought "The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying" a while back, then I shelved it after reading a few pages. I should get back into it. My pretty much uninformed understanding is that the Tibetan obsession with death and dying prepares them well for the big event. Of course, they do put corpses out for the vultures; not a fate I want for my soul's tabernacle.
Sorry, I was raised a Catholic, and after growing up and seeing all of the pain, suffering, and things that happen to children that have no control over their lives I've come to the belief that there is no god. I can't see the Christian god being so vicious.
So if there is no god then there is no heaven or hell. Just turn me off, no reason to suffer through life with the anticipation of glory afterwards.
I think the most important thing about the afterlife, no matter what it's like or whether or not there is one at all, is that it should not have any relevance whatsoever as to how we lead our lives.
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