Everyone is going to die at some point and many of us will be conscious and aware of the fading away. In my present instantiation/paraphrase of The Wisdom of the 7 Sages of Greece, #147, the final suggestion on their list is, “Die with pleasant memories of key moments.” Perhaps this will only last a few seconds, or a few minutes, or a few days, or a few years, or beginning now, but it will come. Whenever we are pondering over our impending demise many thoughts are possible. Some people are filled with terror; for some that is because they know they have done bad things and therefore they will be going to an eternal punishment. Others of that general religious persuasion will know that, although they have sinned, they have done the right things to pay for those sins and therefore they will be entering a time of eternal contentment. Those who are trying to trick God into letting them into heaven by doing all the right things will be condemned to the deepest tortures because the worst sin of all is to try to cheat God.
Many people live with different persuasions about the realities of death, and many believe they will simply dissolve back into the Universe of time, space, matter and energy and the other probably undiscovered and even undiscoverable natural stuff. These people, if they have accepted that worldview long enough to be comfortable with it, will simply fade away with the same thoughts and emotions they have lived with for their previous several years. If they have cultivated a kind way of treating other people, that kindness will double back upon them and they will die as they have lived. That is, they will die with thoughts and feelings of internal love and external kindness. The people of all the vast variety of beliefs who have lived lives of internal selfishness and external greed will die with those same qualities ingrained into their habits and that will be with them to the very last moments of consciousness. Thus their predominant emotions will be based on those habits, and perhaps they will be greatly pained in their last moments with feelings of total loss of all they have grasped at to acquire. Depending upon the depth of their greed they will feel a proportional loss.
For those people who were striving for the health of their children, or their social group, or their nation, or humanity, or all nature, their last moments may be quite pleasant because they know they have helped these to thrive and possibly continue to thrive. They have left the world a better place for their efforts. If they have the opportunity to think about those things in their final moments then they …
Die with pleasant memories of key moments.
