It is interesting to point out that the appreciation of natural versus unreal or simulated a (effects) in life have development development. The aesthetic sense grows side by side with the its fundamentals, namely existential concerns of immediacy.
The aesthetic therefore is a product concurrency, being a secondary differentiation, folding in on itself, where ‘It’, represents the breaking away of the reflection of/from a prr-reflexive consciesness, real or supposed
The basic existential preform consists of pure response , and this is what is instinctive or innate in pre conscious beings,.this is why death is not innate but learned, as is with aesthetic sensibility.
Can we fear the loss of an instinctual level of existence? No, because a purely unconscious pre reflexive, non aesthetic life has no conception of death, other thenthe immediate effects of the effects of the causes of death.
Death is a transcendence, between causes and effects, and it entails loss, and through the increasing subtle channelling of effects slowly developing a sense of autonomy through similar gain of control mechanisms
For these reasons I think the fear of death is learned and not innate.
As I had stated there are the conscious rational, unconscious and instinctual elements re fear of death.
DNA wise all humans are born [evolved] with an innate fear of death, i.e. babies are born with fear of darkness, absence of mother, certain sound, then snakes, spiders, height and all dangerous elements which likely can lead to death. Thus these instincts are ultimately related to the fear of death.
I agree there are many elements that are learned from subsequent evidences as from experiences, informed, learned etc. But these are merely stimuli that trigger the inherent fear of death circuits in the brain.
People also learn of death from observations of the death of other humans as no humans has lived an average more than 100 years old and max at 150 years. Thus the maxim, all humans are mortal.
Therefore DNA wise all humans are “programmed” [btw no programmers] via evolution with an innate fear of death but fortunately it is inhibited and suppressed at the conscious level most [not all] of the time.
Meno … about kundalini fire … are you speaking from personal experience or personal knowledge?
I had my first kundalini awakening symptom more than 20 years ago. Yes … since that experience … on more occasions than I care to remember, I almost lost it … lost it as in free room and board in a “padded cell” somewhere.
Anyone who knows me … including my parents, siblings and children … believe I “lost it” more than 20 years ago and have never recovered.
IMO … if kundalini fire knocks on your door … the worst thing you can do is refuse to open the door. If you open the door on the first visit the worst thing you can do is try to close the door to subsequent visits.
Hi: I learned it first from knowledge and then from experience.Ibtried it years ago without proper preparatopn, and it did nearly drive me out of my mind, and after I was married I used the previous knowledge and practiced it , and it has helped me a great deal.
That is is dangerous to prematurely to the uninitiated , I have no doibt.
I have had other dosciines which I practiced concurrently, namely Zen, which to me works as a backup system, when there is danger ahead with Kundalini
The most tempting shortcut is when at first the energy bypasses the soul and goes into the head, and that is when things can go haywire, maybe You had a similar experience along the way.
For me, naming conventions like ‘soul’ … ‘kundalini fire’ … ‘holy spirit’ are obstacles in the search for truth. The concepts/notions these terms attempt to proscribe are simply unknowable … always have been.
I share your view that one needs to be ‘tethered’ … how is irrelevant … there are many ways to wake up.
Sure, if I had nothing to lose I’d probably not fear death either.
Or, if I ever reach the point where the things that I want to lose [all the pain] come to outweigh the things that I don’t want to lose [all the pleasure], it will certainly make dying more bearable.
It’s just that some folks here seem to be speculating more about the idea of death than the actual flesh and blood oblivion.
But here I am getting closer and closer and closer to the abyss. And if my own understanding of it is correct this means that for all of eternity I will be utterly detached from…
1] the folks I love
2] the music I love
3] the films I love
4] the books I love
5] the art I love
6] the food I love
7] the programs on PBS that I love
8] the discussions I love
9] the emotions I love
10] everything else that I love
So, I ask myself, in that context how on earth can I learn to accept death on a philosophical level.
And I presume that, for all of eternity, you in turn will become utterly detached from all of the things that you love.
How then do you manage to put that into perspective philosophically?
From my frame of mind it all comes down to this: That [sooner or later] even all of the things that I love will be no match for all of the accumulating pain and suffering that comes attached to a body getting older and older and older.
Indeed, it can even become so lopsided that you literally beg to die.
Unless of course you’ve got one of another religious narrative to fall back on.