You are going to die. Sometimes, it can be hard to come to terms with that reality. We are born, we live, we die. Life goes on without us.

As humans, we have a unique life experience, where we learn to see death as an inevitability. You can see we are not entirely evolutionarily equipped to deal with this fact by the myriad afterlife theories created by man as a means of coming to terms with our inevitable and possibly untimely death. Be it the merging of the body with nature, reincarnation, through other people, or animals, or an everafter plane, we are drawn to the idea of what comes next.

I want to explore a couple of these ideas and then share my thoughts afterward.

Heaven: The Place Where Nothing Happens

From Christianity to Islam to native American traditions and some forms of Shamanism, many people talk about an everafter plane usually colloquially known as “Heaven.” The pitch is as follows: If you are a good person who live a good life, in the everafter, you will be granted a blissful existence where you can do what you want, say what you want, go where you want, and for whatever reason, constantly bless your descendants over and over again until the end of time.

How utterly boring.

It would certainly be interesting for the first few decades. You can freely hike the Alps, practice your yodeling, explore the isles, see what the fuss is over in Fiji…eventually, however, you’ll have seen it all. Another trip to Hawaii? Boring. Climbing Mt. Everest again? Boring, boring, boring. Maybe in Heaven, technology has advanced a bit. Unfortunately, Stephen Hawking is burning for all eternity because St. Peter found his presence on Little St. James a bit suss, but there’s still Aristotle, Isaac Newton, and Albert Einstein, after all.

So, maybe you can explore space with some sort of super rocket. It requires infinity and a half fuel, but that’s okay. It’s Heaven, baby! And there are some interesting planets out there! On this one, it rains melted glass, and the wind is so strong, the glass circles the planet before reaching the surface. That’s crazy. And on that one, it rains beer! However, 95% of planets fall in one of about 5 categories, and this is going to get boring quick, too. Don’t forget, you gotta visit Earth-heaven every 20 years to bless the next generation, too. And after about 350 years of this shit, 20 years feels like 2 months. Who knew this blessing shit was so tedious? I’ll take the eternal suffering of Earth over this.

Life: The Sequel

Considering Heaven is making Hell’s infinite suffering look like a luxury cruise after year 1000 (because at least the demons are creative), let’s take a look at reincarnation: the other white meat.

The discussion of reincarnation is genuinely a more practical approach to an afterlife, and I certainly hope the gods are taking note of this. As I said, eternity gets boring after a while. So maybe, what we need is another go at 70 or so more years of struggle and pain. And happy little clouds, of course. The sunshine, the rain. New parents, new siblings, new rivals, new plot, same you?

Well, that seems to be a bit of an issue. Are you living a reincarnated form now? How do you know? It’s not like we walked out of the old life with memories intact. Heck, I didn’t even start making memories until I was 4, what chance do my memories as a German pilot in WWI have?

That is both the benefit of reincarnation as a concept, and the drawback of giving it any credibility.

On one hand, unless you happen to be a believer in karmic destiny, you bear no baggage carried by the previous life – it’s a genuine fresh start.

On the other hand, that also means sitting around for the sequel to a story you won’t remember anyway feels like a waste.

Sleepwalking Toward Inevitability

Regardless of which means of cope you have hitched your wagon to, it always circles back to this life.

This life is where the lessons are learned. This life is where the world is interesting and beautiful. In this life, we will suffer. We’ll experience heartache, loneliness, pain, and loss. And in these moments, we will learn appreciation all over again.

That said, maybe you can experience a soft reboot into another skin suit sometime down the way. Having no recollection of this life, however, it means you’ll experience the same suffering all over again. You’ll learn all the same lessons, all over again. Learn to appreciate, all over again as you journey to the same end, all over again. The Buddhists call this cycle of suffering “Samsara,” and sought nirvana, with the intent of escaping the cycle of suffering. And here we are, waiting for another crack at it.

Conclusion (With a Bit of Insight)

You are going to die. Regardless of the means of coping you use to come to terms with it, it’s important that you recognize the here and now. Waiting for what divine intervention brings costs you precious life.

Alan Watts-senpai talked often about living in the eternal now. The point being that living in the past doesn’t matter, it already happened. Living in the future doesn’t matter. It is only a concept. There is only a series of nows.

I am not necessarily a big proponent of assertive gogetter journeyism. After all, when I go too fast, I tend to miss the little things. But whatever means you take, remember to live, while you still can. Pretend there is no take two, if that’s what you need to go out, smell the flowers, take your husband or wife on a fantastic picnic. Heck, make it a corny 90’s cartoon sequence. Have the picnic on a mountain plateau, complete with a blue-and-white checkered sheet and wicker basket.