I'm not at the point in my life where I'm "preparing for death" yet - in the common sense. Preparing for death in other ways, yes.

But, my grandmother is working on getting her will all tidied up and such, and it seems like what she is doing is making the "assets" of her life into a huge package to leave for her two daughters, my aunt and mom.

Had a dream about death last night actually. Was shown a much broader range of time in which a single human life (mine in this case) was infinitesimal. It made me think about just how short life is - even if it is 100 years it seems to go by so fast at times.

  93

Really?
I have viewed this entire life as a preparation for the coming death.
It is not that I dwell on it, I just recognize it and know its coming. I believe it is important that one is prepared mentally at all times. When reaching a certian age it does loom more inevitable than it does when younger and mundane matters need to be attended to. It is not that aspect which I would like discussed.
I have vivid memories of my past two lives and how they ended. The most recent of which, the memory of it still at times manifests itself in this body. That is all irrelevant. While on active jump duty in army, during hundreds upon hundreds of jumps, I had visualized the ways that death could have occurred on each and every one. That is irrelevant also. It is the fact that it is my will to take an active role in the end of this current body. In a prepared place and in a given time. Am I alone in this line of thinking?

93/93

Are you referring to suicide?

93

I suppose that it could be labeled that way if one chose to.
An unexpected accidental death (if such a thing exists?) not withstanding, I write of that time which we will all know is coming at a certian time in our lives. It is when that time draws near that I write of. At what exact age I do not know. I envision mine in the deep of winter where I will drag myself to this place http://www.occultusluxlucis.us/projectedlaunchsite.htm and laying down as naked as the day I was born, focus on a star in the bright night sky and depart.

93/93

Why did that "http" turn silently into an "ftp" in which I saw nothing, and why then did the extracted URL http not show anything on Google? Did I just download something?

  93

I certianly hope not. It was probably something I did wrong on linking to the photo on my website.
I push buttons on this machine and sometimes it works and sometimes it does not.

I think I fixed it?
My apologies.

93/93

My “Will” is not so dramatic or melodramatic: I have no plans or preparations for my death, voluntary or involuntary.  My only hope is that someone collects my rigid body, deposits it into a nearby dumpster that ends up in some landfill.  I prefer to leave no evidence that I ever inhabited this absurd planet.

BTW that website you post does exist as http://www.occultusluxlucis.us/ 

93

It was not my intention to invoke drama. The idea of a mindset and desire to go willfully and robustly. A discussion maybe along those lines? The more I say, it seems, the further away we get?

I linked to the photo improperly.

93/93

When death comes, what can I do about it? Die. I don't know how it is going to come, or when, or what form it will take, or anything like that. I don't know exactly what will happen, so how can I prepare for that? If I died right now, my wife would get all my stuff. I'm perfectly okay with that. I have no children of my own, so the concern is miniscule. My wife gets everything, and I'm okay with that. That's it for the physical preparation.

I know the idea of a Self, but have experienced it as an illusion.

On rebirth - I think there is only one life to live. Maybe rebirth events happen, and I recall many "past lives". But, I see them as aspects of this life.

Have you ever thought about a situation in your life, and put it in your mind, made a completely different choice, and followed the entirety of that choice up until the present? For instance, take an event when you were a young person, say 12, and make a different choice, then follow it (let it "live out" in your head) all the way until now. Where do you see yourself having made that choice? The answer is, there is no way to really know, so it doesn't matter.

Our lives are an array of experiences. We imagine that a person is walking a path, but there is no person and no path.

When westerners talk of one life resulting in heaven or hell, they are indulging in a fantasy dealing with the endorphins released upon the moment of death - the last thoughts of the brain, ie. "where the consciousness goes when you die". It doesn't actually go anywhere, but it thinks it does, and so they make money using that as propaganda to help soothe fear and displeasure among the ignorant.

When easterners talk about rebirth, they always do it with the idea of liberation in mind. And they perceive the cycle of rebirth as having some kind of way out.

There is no way out. This makes people go crazy. They begin thinking about all the stuff they have to do while they are alive, and the next thing they know they are dead. They think they need to do stuff because of the activity in the brain that creates differentiation is an active process in them, and they think something has to be done about all the different things that pop up. So they fill their lives with things to do - all of which have been taught by others.

So really, there is nothing to do. The human animal survives and reproduces like any other animal. That's it. Everything else is born out of thought, which is an illusion. So when death occurs for the thought, and the illusion of the thought and the thinker goes, then no idea of life and death are entertained. The body is seen as mechanical, and when it cannot function anymore, it stops functioning. When it stops functioning, it becomes worm food, or ashes, or some other substance, and in that sense the mechanical body is immortal. What we call ourselves, the differentiating consciousness, is what lives and dies. And when the differentiating consciousness does not exist, then life and death do not exist.

Suicide is not the answer. Some people see this and think of the meaninglessness of things, and think that suicide is the answer. It is not the answer. The term "Jivanmukti" is an eastern term, and it means, "living liberated". To allow the body to exist in its natural state. The body is perfectly capable of handling itself without the interference of "I". Suicide is used as a means to get rid of the "I", but there is no change. It's giving up, worthless. It's not a realization of anything, and it is not a way out.

As for "going out willfully and robustly", consider The Great Parinirvana Sutra.

Obscuruspaintus-I would suggest/recommend that you read you Hermann Hesse's Steppenwolf and follow along with Harry Haller's adventures and initiations when he is sidetracked from the very same plans you have expressed embracing.

bucket list

I’ll add my voice to those saying that “this life is it”: a person only gets one, single life. That person lives it, then dies, and then ceases to exist.

Maybe that’s not a pleasant thought, but on the other hand, that’s all it is: a thought in the mind. Death only bothers people now because they react to their thoughts about it. Once a person’s dead, he’s not going to care about any of this stuff: there won’t be a “he” to care or do anything at all.

But even now, it doesn’t have to be the kind of thought that ruins a day: the fact that life is finite (the fact that it ends, for good) gives life meaning. An infinite life – that never ends – would be completely meaningless because there would be no point to doing anything. But a finite life has only a finite number of options available: each option you choose restricts your remaining choices, which grow smaller and smaller over time: each action you take, in essence, is infinitely precious in a finite life. Everything you do is a temporary, fleeting expression of the person you are – and that person is right now, never to be again.

We’re all given a little time by the universe, and we decide how we’re going to spend it. And then we have to give our toy back to the universe at the end of play time. That seems more than fair.

And, to paraphrase a friend, in the grand scheme of things, dying is about as important as going shopping: it’s going to happen and then you won’t care any more. And a short time later, no one else will care any more either.

If it doesn’t bother you that some French peasant in the fourteenth century died, then the fact that you’ll die one day shouldn’t trouble you any more.

93

Azidonis, it is not the stuff that gets left behind that matters. But you know that. I witnessed my grandmothers sisters death as a child. She departed while laying in her bed clutching her checkbook and jewelery box. As soon as her estate was settled the "family" took their shares of the booty and forthwith spent it...that which she spent a lifetime scrimping and saving gone in a flash. It was a very early lesson on material objects. Irrelivant to the larger question.
There is that period, when the divine spark leaves the flesh and "exists where?" before it re-enters the spermatozoon to begin the re-birth. It has to be in the approach to our individual deaths that we must prepare for it. To carry it through. It is what occupies my thoughts. Preparation for the next step.
I have no answers only questions. Other points of view is what I seek? Hell...at this point I'm not even sure why I posed the question?

Los, I agree. It should not be the kind of thought which ruins your day. Everything which "I think" I know points to the realization that this one life is not all there is. The perceived universe around me offers the proof. It is in the preparation for the next step which has to be of the most importance.

93/93

While I'm thinking of it, there's a great quote from (of all places) the movie Troy that summarizes this idea:

"I'll tell you a secret. Something they don't teach you in your temple. The Gods envy us. They envy us because we're mortal, because any moment might be our last. Everything is more beautiful because we're doomed. You will never be lovelier than you are now. We will never be here again."

It's a pretty great speech, but it's not in The Iliad at all (nor is it really an accurate depiction of the world of The Iliad). Oh well.

Well, I hate to break this to you, but just about nothing that humans have ever discovered about the universe suggests that consciousness can survive death, and a *lot* of what we have discovered suggests the opposite (that consciousness is a product of the brain and likely dies with the brain).

I realize it might *seem* to you otherwise, but recall that it *seemed* to a lot of people that the sun orbited the earth before they bothered investigating. 

It is in the preparation for the next step which has to be of the most importance.

I strongly disagree, and this is one of the reasons I make it a point to argue against this reincarnation stuff: if this life is the one and only life a person gets, then every minute you spend making "preparations" for some imaginary afterlife is a minute that you've wasted and will never get back.

93

"You will never be lovelier than you are now." Indeed!

The consciousness may well remain with the brain as it fades yet there is that certain undefinable which carries on in the divine fire which we are but a spark. I think, I feel it therefore it is reality to me.

93/93

Unbelievable, simply unbelievable! People lose their consciousness when they sleep, when they get knocked out, when they fall into a coma, etc. - yet it survives death? That's just preposterous. Having said that, however, reincarnation is possible, albeit as the exception that proves the rule.

Markus

Hypothetically, an infinite life would indeed have "meaning" and a "point to doing anything".  The point would be doing everything.  Because one could.  Who says it all has to have a "meaning" anyway?  But, I guess I'm a sort of cosmic nihilist....

I don't doubt that you feel "a certain undefinable," but that doesn't mean that what you're feeling actually is something that "carries on" after death.

There's a huge difference between reality, on the one hand, and your subjective feelings about reality, on the other hand.

Markus:

Unbelievable, simply unbelievable! People lose their consciousness when they sleep, when they get knocked out, when they fall into a coma, etc. - yet it survives death? That's just preposterous.

Indeed it is, especially when we consider that the former conditions you list (sleeping, knocked out, in a coma) are all states in which brain activity continues, whereas death is a state in which brain activity ceases altogether.

N.O.X.:

Hypothetically, an infinite life would indeed have "meaning" and a "point to doing anything".  The point would be doing everything.  Because one could.  Who says it all has to have a "meaning" anyway?

Well, "meaning" is indeed a subjective, entirely individual phenomenon, but it needs bounds in order to exist.

[flash=200,200:2vl4z7my] http://www.youtube.com/v/=axrQRJBtTS4&feature=share [/flash:2vl4z7my]

Btw, video posted as per the instructions. Why doesn't it work?

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.

I do understand that this topic is of a very personal nature and may not be an easy one for some to talk about.
It was not my intention to make it about my believes and my reality. It is my greatest desire to hear other points of view.
It is, I believe the crux of it all and worthy of shining our individual light upon it.

Love is the law, love under will.

In keeping with the current theme of the Olympics it always seemed to me that, while individual consciousness does bow to the rules of electrobiology and expires at the death of the host (no individual, personal eternal consciousness)), the soul is merely a "team player" which benefits or suffers from the behaviors of the individual members (incarnations).  Therefore, while you personally may not suffer because of your actions, your "team" (your "ubersoul" if you will) will.

Death is clearly the seal of ones joyous participation, interaction and eventual union with the universe. It brings with it unutterable ecstasy, peace and rest and is the crown of it all. Each one of us has a universe of our own; however, it becomes the same universe for each as soon as it includes all experiences possible for the all. Thus also does the knowledge of all experience include the knowledge of death. Aleister Crowley writes within The Last Ritual: "but whoso knows the mystery of man sees life and death as curves of one same plan."

There is no death that men call death. It is more along the lines of night and day upon the planet. We hide ourselves in the shadow of our gross body, taking this for reality. But the orb revolves anew and the shadow passes. We love still the phantoms the earth can provide and set ourselves up to be Kings. It pleases us to play with our toys of matter which were created to serve our pleasures.  And so I thrill with the joys of life and death in wonderment of why death is forbidden and reserved for the dogs? This leads me to conclude that in preparation for death I shall need only to bury a bone and dig it up when I awaken.

"Death is my advior," Don Juan told Carlos. "He is always looking right over my shoulder."

"Initiation is death. Thus they fear the number nine." - City of the Sun

Rationally, I always like to think that the last thought just before death represents the sum total of one's life. Practically (however), it has been my experience in the libationary mode that one's last thought is of unconditional surrender. Thus the thought that occurs just before the last thought of surrender is the sum total of one's life. But since it surrenders, it really doesn't matter what the nature of that essemtial thought was.

Obscurus, you described yourself as laying down as naked as the day I was born, focus on a star in the bright night sky and depart.

I was struck by your familiarity with the process. There are two ways with which I am familiar. One is described in City of the Sun: "After a short induction period of pranayama (controlled breathing), the patient built an imaginary body in a garden. Then this astral vehicle was fully energized by exercising the etheric sensations of sight, sound, smell and touch ... The patient was then instructed to cause their astral body to accelerate straight up … and up … in a classical Rising on the Planes endeavor.
This technique is merely cited as background information. What is important in relation to the Veil of Paroketh, are the commonplace results, for certain distinct scenarios came to be recognized …

First, there were those who rose up into “nothingness” or a
dark, impenetrable fog. Although everyone, except for one person,
was able to visualize the garden, there were (only) three people who
became “stuck” and could not pass through the Veil.

Second, there were the folks who had to be verbally encouraged
to “keep going” like a rocket ship. Despite the dark fog, they would
eventually break out of the other side and exclaim, “I see stars.”
This, by far, was the most common path, comprising around ninety
percent of the typical journeys. Rarely, additional needles were
inserted in “resurrection” acupoints to effect a breakthrough.

Third, there were people who, when told to “go up,”
immediately, or within a few seconds, said, “I see stars.”

Then there's the second version: "I closed my eyes and then a pull on my body began. At the same time, my body began to tremble and shake violently, especially in the pelvic area. "I am trying to relax," I said, "but what is all this shaking?"
"That is your physical body putting up resistance," she replied.
Then, with my eyes closed and my body in spasms, I heard a voice within my head. It was my own voice, yet I did not consciously formulate the words.  The voice said, "To hell with this body!" and I was instantly moving up and away from the earth at a tremendous speed.
The planet was a vast, blue ocean, fleeced with white clouds, disappearing rapidly beneath me. Turning my gaze toward the direction in which I was proceeding (straight up), I beheld a brilliant, white star that loomed ever greater and greater until it assumed the proportions of a white sun. And the voice within me said, "I am going home!"  I was filled with a sense of awe and reverence, and in this state I penetrated the white sun and was overwhelmed with ecstasy - and unconsciousness."
- Inside Solar Losge - Behind the Veil

In the first case, one rises up (away from the earth) ans a starfield comes into view [the next step is to locate the brightest star and head for it at quantum speed]. In the second case, one was simply rising up at high speed, but still with earth awareness, followed by the vision of the star. But there was no sense of personally trying to "rise" or "pushing," just the feeling of already being in motion.

In both cases, body awareness gave way to earth awareness, which gave way to star awareness.

From my experiences, I would say that THIS star is the Atman, the "higher angel," who is welcoming you home. The star will hold a dialog (two-way) with you under certain conditions. This is the Bardo Thodol's Secondary Clear Light. Once one unites with the star, Nirvana occurs [doesn't not occur :o]

This is Union with The Primary Clear Light

If one "comes back" into the same body, then parinirvana has not occurred (see Azidoinis' link to parinirvana:

[move:3mwo93a1]No coming back, no more, no more. no more, no more. Hit the Road, Jack, and don't you come back no more[/move:3mwo93a1]

This Nirvana state is experienced on many occassions in life and in meditation. "Nothing is a secret key of this law."

If one "comes back" into another body or vehicle, then it's called "reincarnation" and some people have distinct "memories," which may or may not be true in any practical sense, but certainly have an impact in the abstract (higher) mental realm.

What did Crowley say? "Die daily!"

video link since the other was not working. The video is really worth the 28 minutes or however long it takes to view it (circumstances vary).

Yes, there is.

Yep - reincarnation is an elegant and appealing theory to many, but it's just not the way things work. By the way, you don't have a 'soul' either. Just saying. Unfortunately, no matter how ingenious the theory (like 'phlogiston' for example) if it's wrong, it's wrong.  Always best to accept the world how it really is, rather than pining for it to be the way you would like it to be.

Basically, don't waste your time or bother your head with metaphysical claptrap while there's life to be lived!

As you probably know Crowley was an asset of British intelligence, and many of his other occult contemporaries were spooks too - Annie Besant, Gurdijieff, Reuss, Stanfeld-Jones, loads, loads more - and their 'occultism' must be seen in the light of their clandestine activities and the secret society milieu of the late nineteenth/ early twentieth century. Not to say that when you strip all this away nothing is left (especially in the case of Crowley) because when you do in his case, what's left is... Thelema!

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.

It was for some reason a sleepless night, yet this mornings meditation the most refreshing ever.

I guess that one really cannot discuss the death of the body without addressing the life of it. While young and vibrant the thought of death and the ending of life is indeed a repulsive one, after all there is so much to experience. Sensations of both pleasure and painful natures. Oh...that sweet piece of ass! Anyway, it is my opinion that the sooner we can get the mindset right for the ending the more we may gain from the experiences of the life. I could fill a short book with all the near misses and brushes that I have had with death throughout the course of this life. This is something that I am sure I am not alone in. But the near misses coupled with witnessing the end for many elderly family members tempter me at a young age yet it has still taken until now for it all to fully dawn on me. There are things which I have read written by A.C. that have fueled this but try as I might, I page through the books and cannot find them. Visualizing the death and putrefaction and all that. If one hasn't already, the earlier you get about it the better off you will be.

Frater Shiva says, "Rationally, I always like to think that the last thought just before death represents the sum total of one's life. Practically (however), it has been my experience in the libationary mode that one's last thought is of unconditional surrender. Thus the thought that occurs just before the last thought of surrender is the sum total of one's life. But since it surrenders, it really doesn't matter what the nature of that essemtial thought was." Those words resonate with me in a way, yet I do think it matters. It is in those last few moments that it all hinges. It is for those last few moments that the entire life experience must be a preparation for. That word, that mantra, that thought, that ritual or act of devotion...it must be developed as early as possible and built into ones life. Then wherever or whenever that moment of departure occurs, one is prepared. But what is it that will carry us over the falling away of the flesh and remain with our spark throughout the process and carry over to rebirth...the return to the flesh? It surely has to be something different for each individual? Through the course of the day I can physically feel the sensation of experience in the area of my eyes and forehead. In changing my focus to that of my higher self, to the divine spark which I woo like a lover, the sensation changes position to the crown of my head. It is the sensation of feeling a physical spot in being. It is my belief that a vibratory word or sound must be coupled with this "sensation" and employed at the time of departure. As of this moment I do not know what that word is but believe me when I say that I am searching myself for it.

My appreciation for those who have spoken up and posted on this topic cannot be expressed adequately. Every word has had meaning and an effect. Hopefully we will get at something here which will serve all? And if it turns out in the end that I have deluded myself in all this? Then the joke will be on me and it will not matter.

Love is the law, love under will.

I don't believe in any of it.

Beautiful!

"And if it turns out in the end that I have deluded myself in all this? Then the joke will be on me and it will not matter."

Of course it matters, Dumb-Ass. Get with the program. Didn't you watch that film about the Sound of Insects? You know, the Human Mummy Guy who starved himself to death? Wasn't he cool? Existential, even?  He shrunk himself into a prune-penis and eventually evaporated. La-Dee-Da. We all swoon at his death. 

Read Steppenwolf. Your big-man death-wish is going to bite it in Babalon's Eyes. Yes, the desire is a Rubicon. So cross THAT instead of some fey suicide.

Or be a pussy. Doesn't matter to me. I don't have a horse in your race.

But YOU do-!

93,

Kidneyhawk

O-

I wish to add to my above post that it was admittedly written from a reactionary place and I had just this past week dealt with an untimely death that saw me assisting a funeral director with carrying out the body of a person I both knew and loved. My words "Dumb-Ass" and "big-man death-wish" were meant to be as playful as they were "chiding" but I think they may have simply come across as insulting which was not my intent. My impassioned reaction remains as I feel that life is precious and should not be extinguished to follow an idea which may be in error. But I do appreciate your expression of these ideas and willingness to push into them. My view is not the "right one" but it is my view-which got unduly defensive/offensive when encountering yours. Stars colliding in time, perhaps. Either way, my apologies and respect. Hope I haven't derailed what is a truly interesting-and I think important-thread. 

We certainly have had our fair share of sanctimonious assholes here over the years. You get a guy with alot to say, too much. Like shut your trap, already!

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.

Ahhh kidneyhawk! A wonderfully refreshing display of real emotion and I thank you for it. My apologies for the slow reply.
I will say that I have no death wish and do not speak of suicide. I love being in the flesh and thrill at every new experience. It is our individual preparation for and greeting of the transition that must be consciously worked to, at least to my way of thinking anyway. Mankinds next great step has to be carrying over one lifes experience to the next. Then we will be progressing? Just like trading the old worn out car in for the new one. As long as we live in this world, we are subject to the laws of ebb and flow, the cycles of life. To overcome the trauma of departure and re-entry, to carry the experience of one life to the next, I think, is taking the next great step. Once we overcome that...just imagine. To no longer think in terms of man but something more. Something which lies at the the core of who we truly are.
It is not my intention to sound like a sanctimonius asshole...but there are just so damn many distractions?
Again I do apologize for apparently leaving this thread hanging, shit happens.

Love is the law, love under will.

Huh?

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.

I looked into my book and found that someone had been writing some of what I'm trying to say.

Heavy, thick, dark grey clouds roll across the earth. Within those clouds countless flashes of lightening occur, tantalizingly they both thrill
and fear. It is the planet regenerating itself making it possible for life to exist. It is the terrestrial form of the divine fire.
The patient lies on the operating table as the flesh is failing and the process of death begins. The natural rhythmn of the heart fails. Inside
it are cells which discharge electrical impulses which keep the heart beating thus maintaining life. As they fail the doctors bring out the
"paddles" and release a massive electrical charge which re-establishes the cells ability to discharge the electrical impulse necessary for life.
The Divine Fire. It is the sacred spark which lies at our very core...that which we truly are.
Inside the brain, neurons and discharged electrical impulses creat chemical reactions which cause to perceive and experience both that which
appears to be "ourselves" and that which appears to "be" around us. As living human beings we are a divine spark of that heavenly fire contained
in a body of water.
A plastic lawn chair out in the direct sunlight. Sitting in it I run my hands over the arms of it and feel the hairs on my arms raise as the
electrical current travels throughout my body. A product of the Sun, the supreme and visible provider ( at least in this world) of the light,
fire and fire of which we are all just a spark of.
These are just brief descriptions of complex ideas and principles which show who we are in the purest sense. As we exist, here and now, in our
physical bodies of flesh there exists within each and everyone of us sub-atomic particles which link us and stretch back to the very beginning.
Transmitted through the sexual act in an unbroken chain, the divine spark is cast into the womb of space carried by the spermazoon. There is
no end.
Ultimately, to me, what Aleister was getting at and led me to, was this...that by certain actions we may become conscious (of and to) this divine
spark within and by our actions may strengthen it. I believe that with the right and true course of actions, throughtout the course of our lives,
we may, at the final moment of release, through our own unique vibration affect our divine spark marking it in a way so that our experience and
being will carry through the process of transition and into the next life thus realizing our own immortality. We are no longer mere men but come
to the right and true realization that we are god.
As usual with me, I can only say that this is my point of view, nothing more nothing less. I care enough about you to share it with you in hopes
that together we may find our way.
Just to look at...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/klfoster-painting/7857562876/in/photostream

Love is the law, love under will.