What is our natural state?
The lack of a physical body is our timeless natural state, and existing with a physical body is as temporary as a dream. We are incredible and powerful spiritual beings having a human experience, and not just humans having a limited spiritual experience.
How will death feel?
“Death will feel literally as waking up from a dream, and realizing, "Oh, this is my real reality", and then the dream just sort of fades off. Death is like that with regard to physical reality. You wake up and suddenly remember who you are and that you where having this physical dream.
You assume that death means annihilation. You are afraid in general of the idea because you think it’s the end of your identity, when in fact its actually the expansion into more of yourself. You become more of who you are in death.”
- Bashar -
After life
There is no death.
Only a change of worlds.
- Chief Seattle -
Life review experience
You have probably heard people talk about near death experience, and mention the idea of “life review”, where suddenly they experienced the effect of everything that they have done in life, from the perspective of the people that where affected by there actions.
Physical reality possess this quality of space-time artificial construct, this concept of delay, this dimensional idea of things take time, things need space, you are you, you are not me, I am not you. When you transcend this physical reality, that drops away. It’s the first thing to drop away.
You experience some sense of individual identity in spirit, but when you awaken from the dream of physical reality, you are everyone you’ve been interacting with, so you immediately feel all the things that are the results of your interaction with them. That’s what life review is. A natural obvious result of simply removing the space-time construct from something that is essentially one being.
Death and the truth of impermanence
The underlying emotion that governs all the activity of the ego is fear. The fear of being nobody, the fear of nonexistence, the fear of death. Why fear? Because the ego arises by identification with form, but deep down it knows that no form are permanent, that they are all fleeting. So there is always a sense of insecurity around the ego.
One of the main reasons we have so much anguish and difficulty facing death is that we ignore the truth of impermanence. We so desperately want everything to continue as it is that we have to believe that things will always stay the same. But this is only make-believe, a pretense. Nothing, nothing at all, has any lasting character. The Buddha said:
“This existence of ours is as transient as autumn clouds.
To watch the birth and death of beings is like looking
at the movements of a dance. A lifetime is like a flash of lightning
in the sky, rushing by, like a torrent down a steep mountain.”
In our minds, changes always equal loss and suffering. We assume, stubbornly and unquestionably, that permanence provides security and impermanence does not.
Death and appreciation of life
When you find yourself struggling with any personal drama or story, family problems, money problems, health problems, and so forth, try to adopt a larger overview, a broader context within which to view your existence. Take a step back and ask yourself, “If you know you were going to die tomorrow, how much would this really matter?” Look at your problems in that light.
Whenever we lose our perspective, reflecting on death and impermanence shakes us back into the truth.
We have to pull death close, embrace it, carry it in our hearts and minds, just like something you carry in your pocket and always have one hand on it. Let death be your companion. That’s the one thing you really have, the one thing that’s really yours, that no one can take away.
As he approached death, the Buddha said:
Of all footprints That of the elephant is supreme; Of all mindfulness meditations That on death is supreme.
Is there life after death?
There was a Zen monk who asked his Zen master,
“Roshi, is there life after death?”
The Roshi wisely answered, “I don’t know.”
The monk was incredulous at his answer, and blurted out,
“But Roshi, you’re a Zen master!”
To which the Roshi replied, “Well yes, but I’m not a dead Zen master!”
Finally, I would like to share an ancient quote that has become one of my favorite ones and a true teaching that guide my way since I had a close experience with dead due to the Multiple Myeloma cancer I deal with since 2016.
Die while you’re alive
and be absolutely dead.
Then do whatever you want:
it’s all good.
- Shido Bunan -
“In our western culture,
although death has come out of the closet,
it is still not openly experienced or discussed.
Allowing dying to be so intensely present
enriches both the preciousness of each moment
and our detachment from it.”
- Ram Dass -
Recommended article: Just Passing by
Recommended article: Living in Time Vs. Presense