Life after Death
Should we be afraid of death?
“Through our eyes, the universe is perceiving itself. Through our ears, the universe is listening to its harmonies. We are the witnesses through which the universe becomes conscious of its glory, of its magnificence.” — Alan Watts
Life never ends even if you and I are dead, because there will always be more people, animals, and plants through which life will continue to exist.
We are all one force of life. Think of life as a hand, and every individual as a finger on that hand. We give ourselves names and create our different identities with likes and dislikes to separate ourselves from the whole, but it is a form of self deception.
Life runs through all of us. None of our individual deaths will change that because life will simply continue to run through those of us that are alive.
“You didn’t come into this world, you came out of it, like a wave from the ocean.” — Alan Watts
Why then do we fear death?
Our ego, i.e. our sense of self, tries to convince us that we are something that is different from the rest and that we didn’t just come out of this world like a branch from a tree. That somehow we are special and different from anything else in the world — that we fell down from the sky.
Our ego does this so that we can become individuals and act on the world as if it is something external to ourselves. It does it so that you feel like there is a point to acting and doing. While we are alive, it is important that we distinguish ourselves in that manner so that we can see the value in our actions and in becoming more than what we are.
Our identification with the ego is a vital part of our existence because that is what gives us a reason to strive i.e. to live and overcome our hurdles. If we believed nothing mattered at all and our existence makes no difference, then there would be no reason to act. Our actions, which stem from our ego-centric motives, within our diverse environments help bring about the varied experiences in our lives and is what makes life rich and beautiful.
Becoming whole
However, when you get closer to death, clinging on to the idea of the individual i.e. our egos will only cause pain because we will be afraid to let go — afraid to go back into the nothingness. But we need to recognize that life never ends even when we die. The thing that is within us will change and take the form of another substance because energy changes forms but cannot ultimately be destroyed. When we turn to dust, we simply get put back into the universe to become something else.
The identity that was created with our existence ceases to exist, but nothing else is lost. It simply gets recycled into a new form.
“If you die before you die, then you won’t die when you die.” — Inscription from St. Paul’s Monastery on Mt. Athos
So when you get close to the end, let your ego die and willingly become one again with everything else, and by doing so, you can make the fear of death fade away.
Maybe this part of what you're getting at (in different words), but I like the way Douglas Hofstadter puts it in I Am a Strange Loop. I can't directly quote it at the moment, but basically he posits that we largely exist in the world as ideas in the minds of others. In this perspective, our physical death doesn't mark the end of our existence. Rather, a version of us remains, potentially for several generations (but with decreasing fidelity).
I am not religious, but this understanding of life after death is both comfortable and believable to me.