It is a very important belief of materialists that there is no life after death—no afterlife, in other words. They reason that since our consciousness arises from the brain it is impossible for our consciousness to survive after the death of the brain. Furthermore, we know that consciousness arises from the brain because living brains usually always exhibit consciousness!
For the true believers of materialism spirituality is impossible since there is only matter. Materialists insist that we live, so to speak, in a Newtonian mechanical universe. Humans, therefore, are mechanical, spiritless beings. Their death is of no consequence. It’s a long dirt nap from which there is no awakening.
For those who believe that spirit is primary (like the Buddha), matter is nothing more than phenomenalized or crystalized spirit. When death occurs, the primary system (spirit) is undisturbed by the collapse of the secondary, phenomenalized system. In essence, the secondary system, that is, the five aggregates (pañca-skandha), is a product of the primary system having been willed out which is an immateriall action. The Buddha says, in fact:
"The five grasping aggregates are previously composed and willed out (purvam abhisamskrtany abhisañcetitani), and to be known as former karma” (SA, 260, 65c-66a).
Death is really a radical change in which spirit becomes engaged with different phenomena, but more likely, far less dense than before.
Which philosophy is the correct one cannot be easily resolved except to say that truth is not one sided. The highest truth admits a world of particulars but also realizes the universal substance of this plurality as well. Materialism only sees the particulars.
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