this post was submitted on 01 Jan 2024
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Dead is not the same as gone. We are a stream of consciousness moving through time. The past isn't "dead" it is just behind us, just as the future is not "birth".
If you imagine yourself as a river of water, there is still a river behind you and In-front of you, but all you are aware of is now.
Whether or not we can go back or forward in that stream of consciousness - who knows. We don't know what we perceive when we do actually die.
If you can't get past this focus on the concept then at least stop thinking of it as "death". That's anthropomorphising what is happening (trying to attribute a human experience to it) but it's adding the baggage of all those negative or anxious feelings we feel about death. Our consciousness moving forward through time is its own thing, it is not death.
Yes, the river analogy was my first thought here. The water rushes by, but the river stays the same. We would never call the changing water or river dead.
We would never call a growing tree dead. In fact, growth and change is exactly how you know the tree is alive.