Philosophy Discussion Forums

JackDaydream wrote: ↑September 3rd, 2021, 1:47 pm I think the ideas of heaven, hell and eternity may be realised in the here and now. One book which leads me to wonder and reflect about this is, 'The Eternal Now,' by Eckart Tolle. Some people are worried about the past, whereas I find that I am more fearful of the future, and the unknown. However, I do see Eckhart Tolle's emphasis on the importance of the moment of 'now' as being extremely important.

Omar Khayyam's main theme was about the primacy of the now, and so I echo some of that and more in my own quatrains:

WHAT REALLY HAPPENS AFTER WE DIE?

We die ‘little deaths’ all the time.
Our atoms change,
Some of our memories go away
And some new ones reappear,
Although we realize that it
Is the core of memories
That defines us as us.

It’s just that we are hardly
The same people now
As when we were much younger.

We had ‘death’ before birth, too,
And now there is life after birth.

Is there life only during life?

If one had amnesia and began
Learning the world anew,
Then one might say that
One as the previous person
Was ‘dead’ and that it is
Our new life that counts,
One not even missing the old one.

And, while the ‘big death’ is much more
Than any of these ‘little deaths’,
It is that our atoms will go on
To reside in a new person eventually.

It’s not like there is any continuity of memory,
But more like that any narrative will do.

As for really knowing all, that is, the TOE,
Meaning that we know that we can’t know it all.
This is a relief and so then we can go about our life,
With the ultimate freedom to be.

@PoeticUniverse
I do agree that we have many 'little deaths' in life before the big one. It is true that whatever happens to consciousness and ego identity that the atoms will go into to form some other form. In a way, it is like a process of cosmic recycling. Definitely, I think that we should be able to go through life not worrying about it and I have probably spent too much time dwelling on it, but that is because for me it is the biggest question in philosophy, and probably more important
than the one about the existence of God.

JackDaydream wrote: ↑September 5th, 2021, 2:51 pm the big one.

Leaping ahead, Omar dies…

@PoeticUniverse

I really like the video. It is extremely surreal, with the flying carpet and I particularly like the skeleton surrounded by a blue aura.