This may seem a strange question.
For the last 15 or 20 years I have not wanted an afterlife. After I die I would like there to be non-existence. The last thing I want is there to be any form of afterlife, regardless of the form it takes.
I am happy enough with the life that God has given me. However, it is enough - I don’t want anything else.
The Catholic faith seems to heavily promote an afterlife. I do not want a Catholic funeral, or any funeral where the emphasis is on life after death. Would it be ‘safer’ just not to be a Catholic, or can I opt out of the afterlife part?
It is wonderful to be satisfied with what one has, and appreciate it, if that is indeed what is going on with you and you are “telling all.” On the other hand, we hide much from ourselves that is not available to our reckoning without serious work.
In any case, neither you nor the Church has anything to say about an alleged “afterlife.” The Church’s model of "life after ‘death’ " is fom an incomplete model of understanding regarding human awareness and the Consciousness it is dependent on. As wonderful as religion might be, or not, it is only part of the story, and the superficial part at that, despite claims about covering the whole dynamic. Jesus might have, the Church does not.
As for “afterlife” there is none. There is none because there is no “beforelife” and life as we experience it itself is woefully misunderstood. Why do you think there are so many “ways” and they all claim to be “right?” Fact is, there is only LIFE. It has no inherent morality or or requirement, save that the
forms of life have experience. And those experiences have consequences. Exact consequences. There is no need for a “judge” to evaluate your life; you will eventually discover that you will to a supremely exact job of that for yourself, down to the last detail. You will have an absolutely dispassionate and loving editorial assessment of your experience as a human being.
In short, life isn’t about time, though experience is about timing. Life is about Substance, and that is not before, during, or after, it just IS. So even framing a question about and “afterlife,” though it might have temporary cultural significance, in Reality such has no bearing on the actual dynamic.
As for when it comes time to let go of your present form, the two questions you will ask yourself in excruciating detail are: !) “Did I Love?” and 2) “What did I learn?” Those two questions and their answers will determine the following course of your experience. You will have no no judgement about it, you will simply see the necessity of it and be as complicit to it as you now are to your breathing. It is just what it is.
You will, perhaps, notice that the two questions are exactly lined up with The Great Commandment, the four forms of The Golden Rule, and the ancient dictum to “Know Thyself.” Is that by chance? No. Religion, any religion, has always and everywhere stemmed from the innate, if misunderstood, Knowledge that Man is made in the Image and Likeness of God. The whole Point of being Human is to, over time, understand that astonishing Immensity and the implication inherent and hidden in that fact. It is the least explored and least taken advantage of idea in the whole inventory of human data. It is also one of the most resisted, because it requires a commitment to absolute responsibility in a way we don’t ordinarily think of.
That is why it is called by many names that tend to discourage people who would rather be religious or not religious, which amounts in fact to about the same thing, because both take place in and with the same ideas that actually prevent seeing past one’s own mind and its shenanigans. But in any case, you eventually will see for yourself, as some have and lived to tell tale tale, and as some know, whose efforts to inform the less experienced around them have been met with religionization and weakening. But that is how it works.
Like Dr. Arroway (great name!) in Contact, we can only make small moves for the most part. But there is that unaccounted for part that few talk about, or even few know about, especially competently. But it is how things work. The only thing that is absolutely certain is that despite any personal opinion we might have about it, we each are in the hands of Absolute Love. Innately you know this. You will not be deceived.
). How about those new toys you were looking forward to? I suppose you could call it greed. But I call it joy, adventure, excitement. . . accepting what God has planned for us.