[Buddha-l] Being unable to imagine dying and living

[lemmett at talk21.com]

> I've been reading portions of this thread and have a
> question.  Why would death be inconceivable?  It
> seems easy to conceive, but not possible to experience it
> while not experiencing it.  Aren't there practices in
> the early traditions where a monk or meditator visualizes
> his death and the dissolution of the skandas?  Isn't
> this a form of conceiving of death?
> 

I wouldn't know about Buddhism but Derrida says something about a line that terminates all determinations and that the passage into death cannot have the form of movement. Thomson's article also mentions Hegel - that to set a limit is already to go beyond it in some way.
I'm convinced that I've understood Derrida, at least that we can't conceive of a death that strictly happens to me. Obviously I can imagine my lifeless body, I mean phenomenally or something. I suggest that it's more about whether that's entirely irrelevant rather than if it's the case: perhaps Buddhist practice is a non conceptual conception of dying?

Thanks.