Sartre would be a long way down the list of people I would want to look up when I "arrive", Bill. ;-) A loooooooooong way. First I would look up those (both people and animals) whom I have really loved, but not seen in some time. Then I would look up those whose ideas (and ideals) really deeply interest me, and those who can teach me something new. After that...I might eventually get to Jean-Paul Sartre somewhere way down the line or he might get to me. Hard to say, really.

As for living the "before death", as gnu advises, I think that's an excellent idea. ;-D The problem with a lot of people who go into what they term "spirituality" is that their basic underlying subconscious impulse is a desire to escape from the unpleasant demands and difficulties of this embodied life. They want to avoid it somehow. That's an error in thinking, in my opinion. It's resistance to present realities in the vague hope of escaping to something better that attracts them to the spiritual path. I know that's one of the things that initially attracted me to it. The best thing to do with present realities, however, is appreciate them to the fullest and deal with them with much gusto, not attempt to deny or avoid them in some way by mentally separating yourself from them.

Now, Bill, here's what I think. It isn't a question of "arriving" anywhere, because we are already there. We HAVE arrived. We were never "not there". We are in the midst of life right now...intimately...at present...and always will be as far as I'm concerned. For me, that is as true before birth and before death as it is afterward. I don't believe there's anything but life, and we are already there in it. We're just manifesting right now in a particular physical form we've become familiar with, that's all. You notice how that form is inexorably changing before our eyes? We're all getting "older". Presently the form of life we are familiar with inhabiting now will cease and pass away, but life itself will not cease, it will continue in trillions of new forms, and we will still be inextricably a part of it. But not in our present form.

I won't necessarily call you "BillD" farther on from here, because "BillD" is just a tiny fragment of who you really are (in my opinion).

You don't know who I am. I don't know who you are either. But I do know this...we are both life itself, manifesting briefly in a temporary form called "human". The temporary form is interesting, and can be fun, but it doesn't particulary matter in the long run.