Hooked On the Afterlife? – Dialectic Two Step

Question:

How can I stop having a desire for the afterlife?


Response:

First, pray or meditate on the afterlife. Imagine its beauty, its pleasure, the eternal bliss that it represents. Visualize all the benefits you believe it will bestow on you.


Now, do something you really enjoy. Take a vacation. Have friends over for a dinner and make your favorite dish. Have sex. Eat chocolate. Whatever it is that you really enjoy.


Which activity fulfilled your desires? Hint: if it was the first one, you haven’t enjoyed life to its fullest.


Even if you are severely disabled, or in pain, doing something you truly enjoy provides some amount of satisfaction or pleasure.The idea of an afterlife doesn’t seem capable to competing with real life pleasure. A desire for it sounds, at best, like a dangerous obsession.


Dialectic Two-Step  is an ongoing series of my thoughts on questions that come my way.


Wisdom lies neither in fixity nor in change, but in the dialectic between the two. - Octavio


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The post Hooked On the Afterlife? – Dialectic Two Step written by Andrew Furst appeared on Andrew Furst.

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Published on October 24, 2016 06:30
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