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In reply to the discussion: When you die, there will be nobody waiting to greet you [View all]VOX
(22,976 posts)If one accepts the the principle contained in the first law of thermodynamics: that energy can neither be created nor destroyed. Most Western beliefs would state that a higher power (God, to many) created this energy, but that same creator is somehow not part of this world; he/she isn't bound by time and space, and is therefore separate from our dimension. Plus, he/she got to invent the rules.
However, in Eastern beliefs, many would state that our world is only a holding tank, as it were, and our individual energies are here for only a brief time, after which we return to an eternal pool of the Tao or Brahman or whatever.
Therefore, in a sense, when we die, we DO join our families, loved ones, pets, ancestors -- the whole show. All the energies will be joined (as they are now, actually), it just won't be in bodily form.
I take comfort in this idea, but am in no hurry to get there. In the meanwhile, you're correct, now is all there is. As musician/writer Mason Williams cleverly put it:
Now was right then
Here it is again
Right now.