Is it selfish to want to live forever?

Question

Is it selfish to want to live forever?

Answer

A good question...Id like to respond from a Buddhist perspective if I may...your use of the term quotselfishquot in this context has prompted and interested me...perhaps other may find some wisdom from my poor insight on the Buddhist concept of Self and the self serving desires it thus generates within our consciousness...brbrSelf, to Buddhists, is a characteristic of the consciousness which arises in the consciousness whenever we interact with our environment. When we do interact, our senses are the thing which does this interaction...our senses then cause feelings which in turn cause thoughts to arise...without awareness and concentrated effort to recognise this quite normal reaction, we then miss the arising of the Self part of the consciousness as a result of these thoughts.brbrSelf, the identity that we generally associate with that entity which we think of as quotusquot..is just a manifestation of these filters within the consciousness which we have learned to associate with since birth. These filters include Self but there are many many more of these filters within, which we use all the time without thought or method...for example, when we see someone who we dislike, the thought of such dislike arises...this thought of dislike arises because we have trained our consciousness to respond thus to this person in this way...this, to Buddhists is the basis of a concept called delusion...when we delude our consciousness about certain things and are deluded by our consciousness about these things all the time afterwards...the above example will cause us to feel dislike, even if the person no longer hurts us or has changed...brbrThe feeling of wanting something for ourselves is likewise caused by this Self...to want to live forever is actually impossible..at least in the present day..to thus want an impossible thing is delusion and thus caused by the Self...the Self often wants things which are unreasonable...and it always wants things which only benefit ourselves...brbrTo Buddhists then, to want to live forever is not only Selfish because it is caused by the Self, but is Selfish because it is unreasonable to want such a thing. I use the term Selfish to mean that it is caused by the Self....brbrAnything to do with the Self, to Buddhists is thus Selfish..and delusion...brbrSome thoughts on the Self from...brbrA Buddhist...