Your belief in a unique destiny for your self – that you are a lover, warrior, hero, or devil; wise man or sly man; manipulator and ruler; guide, martyr, or watcher of fools – betrays your hubris. To loosen the bonds of belief, look:
“According to the latest scientific estimates, the Earth formed about 4.5 billion years ago and the first living things appeared about 3.9 billion years ago. Imagine the complete panorama of the earth’s history - about 4.5 billion years - set equal to a 24-hour day. If geological time were displayed on a clock that began ticking the instant our planet was born, the first gene probably emerged in the predawn hours, before 5:00 am. Later that morning the first sun-fed photosynthetic cells appeared, followed that afternoon by cells that carry their genes inside a membrane-bound nucleus, and later that evening by the first of many multicellular organisms. The first modern human beings, members of Homo sapiens, would not arrive on the evolutionary scene until about the last 30 seconds of this long day, and all of recorded history took place during the last tenth of the last second before the stroke of midnight.”1
What fraction of the last tenth of the last second before midnight belongs to you? What will you do with your span of time? What can you do that has significance in the face of billions of years?
What about you does not change? Is there anything eternal?
Especially considering that our sun will burn out in 5.5 billion years.
The edge of the visible universe is some 15 billion light years distant (one light year equals five trillion 880 billion miles).
Within that universe are 2000 billion billion stars (equate that with every grain of sand on 47,000 miles of beaches.)
And 10 million billion planets.
Then there is the planet Earth. And you standing upon that planet, taking in, or being taken in by the vastness, looking at the night sky; looking into the past.
The light you see tonight from the star Alkaid (the star on the end of the handle of the Big Dipper), began its journey before you were born – 101 years ago. You will be dead before an observer on a planet near Alkaid ever sees the light of this Earth night.
What will he know of you? What will you know of what you were? What will you know once the mind and body are gone, preceded by countless other minds and bodies?
The total number of people who ever lived is 33.8 billion. Of those, 6 billion are alive today. 2
Where are the 27.8 billion who died? What did they want during their life? Who do you know that is now among the 27.8 billion who passed away? Are they immortal or do they only remain in frozen memory which melts away like day?
Of the 6 billion alive today, how many hunger for meaning and purpose? What is your purpose among this 6 billion?
Current world death and birth rate: 3
4.2 births per second, 1.8 deaths per second 361,381 births per day, 152,460 deaths per day
Every second, your replacements arrive, and every second is closer to being your last.
The average American life span is 76 years. That is 2,396,736,000 seconds.
If you want to see how many seconds you have left, and watch them go by, visit www.deathclock.com.
Don’t deny time – look within for the first motion, and its source.
In their lifetime, an average person will spend: 4 24 years sleeping 12 years talking 9 years watching tv 8 years at work 3.5 years eating 6 months on the toilet
Sad twilight cricket… Yes, I have wasted Once again Those daylight hours. –Rikei
Your one year probability of various ways of dying:
lightning 1:14.2 million drowning 1:600,000 falling 1:16,000 homicide 1:15,000 dying in auto accident 1:7000 stroke 1:1700 cancer 1:600 heart disease 1:400 death by any cause 1:117
Your long term odds: death 1:1
However, your odds of discovering your true relationship to death are only limited by your desire. Your desire is only limited by your capacity for honesty. Your capacity for honesty changes through efforts to be honest.