Reminder: This Will All End

A short talk on life, death, and finding meaning. The inevitability of death is overwhelming.
What is the point? Why strive when our accomplishments do not last? There is some logic to this line of reasoning. The fact is that we are going to die. And given enough time, all memory and evidence of our existence will fade from humanity’s collective memory.

Transcript

The inevitability of death is overwhelming.

What is the point?

Why strive when our accomplishments do not last?

There is some logic to this kind of reasoning.

The fact is,

We are all going to die.

And given enough time,

All memory and evidence of our existence will fade from humanity's collective memory.

Most of us will not even be remembered four generations from now.

Do you know anything about your great grandparents,

Other than their names?

Do you even know their names?

Why should our lives be any more permanent?

For the few who do make such a lasting mark,

Time will inevitably distill them into little more than a wiki entry.

Just a summary of a lifetime of accomplishments,

Into a couple of broad paragraphs or a book.

How much do we really know about the great people of history?

What truth remains after countless retellings and translations of their work?

Even our gods,

Once worshipped by entire nations,

Will be practically forgotten.

Consider your knowledge of the ancient Greek or Roman Patheons,

Or the countless pagan deities of tribes across the globe.

What do you know of these beings who were once considered to be the literal creators of the universe?

Us,

Our gods,

And everything we know will be forgotten,

Lost to history,

Or destroyed by the inevitable heat death of the universe.

So then why bother?

The present moment gives life meaning.

Yes,

It will all end,

But that end has not yet come.

The past is a memory,

The future a dream.

Now is all that exists.

We could easily waste what we have now,

Worrying about what will come.

We do not know what happened before we were born,

And we do not know what,

If anything,

Happens after we die.

Thus,

Our life now is all that we know for certain that we get.

Before birth,

There was nothingness,

Blackness,

A void.

After death,

There will be nothingness,

Blackness,

A void.

But right now,

There is light,

Feeling,

Connection,

And warmth.

There is something.

The present moment burns like a candle in the darkness.

It is the sole point of illumination in an otherwise lightless continuum that stretches for an eternity.

Our lives,

Whilst fleeting and impermanent,

Are the only real point of difference.

It is that difference itself that grounds our lives' total meaning.

Pleasure and pain are not opposites.

Rather,

They are both contrasting aspects of existence.

They are both parts of the present moment.

Their true opposite is nothingness.

The state before and after our lives.

To feel anything is a point of difference,

And that difference has meaning.

A single moment,

Even one of pain,

Is something to be cherished.

The alternative is total and utter oblivion.

A void.

Nothingness.

Most of the time,

We do not dwell on such thoughts of existential nihilistic dread.

We are too busy,

Too focused on our goals,

Or so concerned about fulfilling our responsibilities that we rarely stop to contemplate the future.

This is no accident.

To be human means to be able to think conceptual and abstract thoughts,

Granting us the ability to falsify on the point of existence.

Yet to evolve into the creatures we are,

We first needed to survive.

To learn to hunt,

Communicate and manipulate the land.

Until very recently,

Day-to-day survival was not guaranteed.

Thus most of our physical and mental energy is primed towards the goal of ensuring that we and our tribe stay alive another day.

We are programmed to put philosophical thoughts aside until we have the luxury of time and safety to contemplate them fully.

When the enemy is at the gates,

It is time to put down the books and pick up a sword.

We need to live to see the next day before we can justify the effort of contemplating the point of that day.

We are privileged to live in such a safe and prosperous time.

The security of our food,

Water and shelter,

Combined with the permanence of societal structures,

Grants us the time and resources to commit to such lines of thought.

One counter to the feelings of pointlessness is to foster feelings of appreciation for the fact that we are in the place to even be having such thoughts.

To generate gratitude towards the collective efforts of all humanity,

Whose toil and struggle created the grounds for your current contemplations.

Of course,

This practice will not do anything to change the logic connected to the feelings of pointlessness,

But it will put them into context.

It will highlight the luxuries that allow you to have those thoughts in the first place.

These thoughts rarely come to mind when I am busy,

Happy or focused.

And when they do arise,

They do not last long.

Feelings of pointlessness dissolve when I hear my son laughing or see my wife smile.

Similarly,

When I have experiences of extreme danger,

Fear,

Stress,

Embarrassment or anger.

These kinds of thoughts are pushed out of my mind completely.

The only time these thoughts are a real problem is when I am already in a bad mental state.

If I am struggling with anxiety or depression,

Or I am dealing with the symptoms of PTSD,

Thoughts of pointlessness of life have a way of compounding those symptoms.

Yet,

If I am in a positive mental state,

Those same thoughts hold no power.

Those very same thoughts could arise,

Presenting the very same logical arguments,

And it simply does not faze me.

Sure,

It may all end,

But I am enjoying this moment,

So who cares?

This is not an ignorance is bliss scenario.

I know full well that it is all pointless,

But I simply don't care.

Love trumps all.

But when I am depressed,

I may concede that it is indeed all pointless and stop trying.

Because what's the point?

When happy,

I may concede that it is indeed all pointless and try harder to accomplish my goals.

Because if there is no point,

If it is all meaningless,

I can do whatever I like.

I may as well try everything.

What have I got to lose?

Mindfulness provides a useful antidote.

If we are truly focused on the present moment,

All philosophical traps lose their teeth.

The thoughts,

Emotions and moods that such contemplation triggers are seen as mere constructs of the mind.

The logical truth of these thoughts holds no ground to the present moment.

It is all a distraction from the present moment.

Something to be acknowledged as you would any other mental phenomena and then let go of.

Over time and with practice you will learn to detach yourself from such thoughts.

They will still arise,

But you will not be pulled by them.

You will not become attached to or identify with them.

You are over here and your thoughts are over there.

You will be able to see,

Feel and even agree with the pointless nature of existence without being drawn into the depression that often comes with such thoughts.

As humans we are cursed with the ability to see our futures.

We are aware of the transient nature of existence and that scares the hell out of us.

There comes a time in everybody's lives when we realise that to live now means to die later and that we do not know what the process entails.

This can be a terrifying realisation and for some it can be crippling.

The strength of our fear can lead us to block off from the truth of our existence.

We turn to substances,

Screens and a relentless pursuit of materialistic gratification in order to put the thoughts of death out of mind.

The problem is that the act of running from fear gives it power.

The more we avoid asking the hard questions and facing the true nature of reality,

The more our fear grows.

And the more they grow,

The more actions we take to run from them.

This cycle is hard to break.

But while it's true that death will come,

It is not here now.

Remember that the only thing that exists is the present moment.

All else is memory or anxiety.

All else is distraction.

The truth is that nothing can stop the inevitable.

We will all die.

Yet to dwell on this outcome,

To let it take hold in our minds,

Is to let it take the one thing that it has no right to claim.

The present.

When our minds become distracted by death,

Or when we ruminate on the unknown,

We are no longer living,

We are no longer focused on the now.

In a way,

When distracted,

We are already dead.

And if we are already dead,

What is there to be afraid of?

This talk was taken from the book,

Reflections of the Self.

The Poetry,

Insights,

And Wisdom of Silence.

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