The fear of death is innate.

An interesting collection of notions/concepts and associated theories has emerged in this OP:

1. a priori information … as in information hard wired into our brain

2. two wildly different systems trying to operate inside one brain

3. the basement of the mind … as in subconscious

4. observational information … as in consciousness

5. the foundation of the mind … as in (insert here)

6. the inward journey … as in introspection

7. the outward journey … as in conquest

the conflict as a result of journeys in diametrically opposite directions

9. the ‘Cloud’ … as in cloud computing

10. the Noosphere … as in enveloping both the biosphere and atmosphere.

There are no others since I am a loner and have nothing to do with anyone anymore

Which is just as well as I am probably not going to be here for much longer anyway

There Is a cure, the use of the very bottom line in the sphere of fear: use fear and it’s trappings instead of it abusing you
.make fear your friend.

What a delightful suggestion Meno.

Emotions are personal … ergo: emotions are like family.

Here’s a fictitious conversation with St Francis of Assisi:

St Francis: Hello brother fear … nice of you to visit me again. Stay as long as you want because I know you are here to help me.

Brother Fear: I keep coming back because you hear me but never listen to me.

St Francis: I’ll try harder to listen to you today … tell me why you’ve come today.

Brother Fear: I want to help you make the right choice at the next fork in the road along your journey through life.

St Francis: OK … how will I know which path to take?

Brother Fear: It will be the path you don’t want to take. The path will be strewn with briars that will cause unspeakable pain and suffering.

St Francis: So your saying sister pain and sister suffering want to visit with me too.

Brother Fear: Yup!

And look at what happened to him.

Do you mean HERE or ILP?

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.

Pilgrim & Phyllo,

The power of the fear used to advantage is very strong, it’s like the use of kundalini fire, be careful HOW its used, it can burn, or, it can purify.

HERE but I cannot be certain

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.

surreptitious,

I was speaking of death ~~ your demise ~~when I said HERE.
Is that what you meant?

Yes I know you were and that is what I meant too

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.

This reliance I to switch in my case Zen

Meno … should we read your comment as follows:

This reliance on “I” … as in ego … as in self … is switched to Zen … as in body politic known as Zen.

If yes … perhaps you could explain your decision … your decision process.

Well, then that explains a lot.

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.

When one accepts death on a philosophical level it can make it easier to accept it on a physical one when the time comes

Maybe.

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.

The critical factor here is the “I.”
Therefore when we are able to manage the idea of “I” [illusory in one perspective] then the problem is managed and modulated.

The “I” is dualistic, i.e. it-is and it-is-not.
One need to develop the ability* to toggle and switch to the proper perspective to optimize the situation this issue of mortality.

• abilty - there the possibility to develop this ability [without side effects] but it is not easy but need consistent attention to work on it just like any other skills.

This is why the Buddhists exercise to ‘attach’ and ‘detach’ optimally within the respective conditions.

Comparing which alternative is worse off is not effectively and the root of the problem is not addressed.