Is life after death a larger issue for a Buddhist Monk or for a person living in the urban environment? Monks and others who are in touch with their deeper sense of self have already discovered the source of their anxieties about death and embrace them.

Seldom do such individuals externalize those anxieties outward calling on religion or science for answers to a dilemma that they themselves subconsciously created. There is no reason to fear these parts of ourselves but it is the shape of our modern world that perpetuates a fear of leaving the securities it provides.

People deal with the idea of death in different ways - through joining a religion or believing that death is the end of all life to support their premise that this life should be lived to the fullest. However most perspectives do share some common ground: something changes after this life.

Could this change be simple nothingness? Reincarnation? Complete reorientation of consciousness? The purpose of this article is to discuss the motivation behind forming an outlet to deal with the concept of death - and the reason an adult person living in the modern world forms a different outlet to one that a Buddhist Monk would.

Outlet 1: Is this all there is?

One of the causes life after death can become a large issue is when a person asks: Is this all there is and all my consciousness can experience? This comes about when the mind questions the power of consciousness to experience life in an infinite number of ways. It is normal for this kind of thinking to come about in the modern world where our consciousness is so often suppressed and restricted.

For instance, a person might have been living his entire life contentedly, but suddenly at one point found he was unsatisfied and wanted more out of life experience. One other example is where a person is drawn to mysterious experiences beyond the material confines of this world - since our social structures do not often encourage this exploration it can cause self-doubt to manifest.

Outlet 2: Existential Despair

Existential despair causes an aversion towards the entire idea of death. In fact it causes so much despair that a person will often force themselves to stop thinking about it altogether, or create an idea in their mind which will delegate how to live their life around death.

For instance someone raised to have a negative view of their reality in their life situation may form an expectation for a better life after death and hence use this aversion to escape the dilemma of their present life situation.

On the other hand someone who has lived a contented life may have the concept of going to Heaven in the afterlife, as long as she continues to uphold the moral acts that give her the sense of being good enough to be accepted into Heaven.

Resolution - No limit

Consider the ontological term being. Non-being occurs where being-ness becomes limited, stopped, or restricted somehow. I do believe that each human being has the potential to expand their consciousness beyond the material world in this life, and if this premise holds then the entire concept of death loses the amount of meaning it has. Consider that in our world we perceive death as a barrier between two worlds - but what if there is no barrier?

Consider all that is - is here, now. Therefore death is no longer relevant, it just becomes a question of when we allow ourselves to let go of this concept to give our spirit the full amount of space it needs to grow.

Projections

No matter whether we hold onto our illusions in this life or the next, their hold over us will still be the same, we still project outward the product of our fears, desires, and anticipations to build the world as we see it. Death, in itself, is just another concept we have built.

Near-Death Experience (NDE) surveys have found that personal experiences after clinical death are so inconsistent among cultures that it is not possible to discern an objective heaven, hell, or afterlife - just projections (Marnat G., AIPR, Issue 19, 1994, pg. 7-11). I believe that both emotional and cultural factors are responsible for the personal expectations formed that then have been found to influence the actual experience of NDEs.

It appears that the energetic charge of an emotion can be so great that it even causes a post-death response in NDEs. This is not a big surprise to me because our emotions are not just in the brain. Our thoughts, emotions, and spiritual states exist all around us (in what some people call the aura).

The Full Experience

The full experience of being alive is understanding that we are so much more than the physical components that contain us. In this understanding we are often able to perceive death for what it is - a transition of consciousness.

It is beneficial to explore and understand our personal anxieties towards death and life after death and how these impact on our understanding about life. This exploration can become an eye-opening experience and can provide insight into fears which we thought were true that are not at all.

Once we are able to understand the source of fearing death we are able to accept the full experience of life.