Dying to be reborn.
We all face it. We suffer from it. If we are fortunate to love people very much we will suffer, often greatly, to watch those we love dearly
die.
My words are just words, but some come from those, I know, who know life. They are experts on life. They know life because they know what it is to live. And interestingly they know - they have never died, just been reborn over and over and that is a different perspective than we usually read about, or choose to indulge in, or even consider.
So there it is. Life. It is called life, because there is no death. Sure our bodies die, they are so fragile and gentle that they die and that is most often great. Because they hurt and the end of that pain is good.
But we only know the mystery and confusion. We may hear the lie of “The Lord has given and taken away”.
It is a lie.
It is a real lie, from our perspective though, it is all we can come up with. The best we can do. But, it is untrue.
The Lord only gives. He takes away our pain, our shit, that’s what He does. He is called The Redeemer and that is what He does.
He does not do the things we consider to be “acts of God” by destroying homes in floods. That is not “his plan”, or his vengeance. That is us trying to make sense out of what we see, our interpretation of nature and life that presents it that way.
Its not to say that the rock that killed the dinosaurs wasn’t “His doing” but still we misinterpret much. And that includes death.
We remain conscious as we leave our bodies.
We experience more love than we may have ever experienced upon death - and that goes for all. George Bush’s evil doers experience that, as well as the saints. The difference is the saints experience only that. The rest of us have other experiences, because our lives were not always wholly virtuous, nor virtuous enough to clean up the shit that we have done.
So fear death? No! Please No! It is not to be feared. Like God, it is not to be feared, but as both are very much unknown, we do fear and understandably so.
If we have a warning, a ticking clock to tell us soon we will die - all changes. Or is should. Its our heart’s way. Our Soul’s way. It is the opportunity to be ourselves, free of the pride, desires and things that may have preoccupied us during our short lives. It is actually a blessing in disguise.
We will return. Without any doubt. We do not stop living. Tibetan Buddhists say within 3 years we are reborn. And I have met many people I have know before and loved them the moment I saw them and them me. I have been fortunate to have that experience and that is the future for us all. Sure - words again, but for me 100% reality.
We don’t loose our characters, we get the chance to perfect them in each life. To be better, to show more virtue, to be kinder, more generous, more loving, more patient, more honest, more selfless. That is life. The rest is background noise, its the trend that we followed and the fad that consumes us and changes from year to year from decade to decade. One day this color, this car, this hat, this beard - the next another. Never constant and always led by someone who doesn’t know the meaning of life. A guru of only the physical world. A style or fashion guru - not a teacher or life - not a teaching of what is real.
We all face it. We suffer from it. If we are fortunate to love people very much we will suffer, often greatly, to watch those we love dearly
die.
My words are just words, but some come from those, I know, who know life. They are experts on life. They know life because they know what it is to live. And interestingly they know - they have never died, just been reborn over and over and that is a different perspective than we usually read about, or choose to indulge in, or even consider.
So there it is. Life. It is called life, because there is no death. Sure our bodies die, they are so fragile and gentle that they die and that is most often great. Because they hurt and the end of that pain is good.
But we only know the mystery and confusion. We may hear the lie of “The Lord has given and taken away”.
It is a lie.
It is a real lie, from our perspective though, it is all we can come up with. The best we can do. But, it is untrue.
The Lord only gives. He takes away our pain, our shit, that’s what He does. He is called The Redeemer and that is what He does.
He does not do the things we consider to be “acts of God” by destroying homes in floods. That is not “his plan”, or his vengeance. That is us trying to make sense out of what we see, our interpretation of nature and life that presents it that way.
Its not to say that the rock that killed the dinosaurs wasn’t “His doing” but still we misinterpret much. And that includes death.
We remain conscious as we leave our bodies.
We experience more love than we may have ever experienced upon death - and that goes for all. George Bush’s evil doers experience that, as well as the saints. The difference is the saints experience only that. The rest of us have other experiences, because our lives were not always wholly virtuous, nor virtuous enough to clean up the shit that we have done.
So fear death? No! Please No! It is not to be feared. Like God, it is not to be feared, but as both are very much unknown, we do fear and understandably so.
If we have a warning, a ticking clock to tell us soon we will die - all changes. Or is should. Its our heart’s way. Our Soul’s way. It is the opportunity to be ourselves, free of the pride, desires and things that may have preoccupied us during our short lives. It is actually a blessing in disguise.
We will return. Without any doubt. We do not stop living. Tibetan Buddhists say within 3 years we are reborn. And I have met many people I have know before and loved them the moment I saw them and them me. I have been fortunate to have that experience and that is the future for us all. Sure - words again, but for me 100% reality.
We don’t loose our characters, we get the chance to perfect them in each life. To be better, to show more virtue, to be kinder, more generous, more loving, more patient, more honest, more selfless. That is life. The rest is background noise, its the trend that we followed and the fad that consumes us and changes from year to year from decade to decade. One day this color, this car, this hat, this beard - the next another. Never constant and always led by someone who doesn’t know the meaning of life. A guru of only the physical world. A style or fashion guru - not a teacher or life - not a teaching of what is real.
So how to die?
With grace and people do do that all the time. We do it as the humility of death draws closer daily, but viagra and all that noise pushes it away.
The humbled live, whilst the prideful are burdened by the weight of being something or someone and it only leads to more loneliness as we watch the change and have the feeling of falling.
People are truly magnificent in their real state. We are truly holy and wonderful. We become confused by those held up to be holy and are belittled so often as to loose our natural state of intuition to know whether this is holy or right. Or even if holy exists! However, all day, ever day God is helping us with that and generally we only really understand that when we die.
That is humbling and makes you drop to your knees in appreciation and submission to the reality of The Creator and our little place in that creation. And in death, that happens. Or can. It is natural.
How to live after we watch our loved ones die?
With grace again. With the appreciation of that time and try hard not to cling to the past. It has gone and that person needs a sense of freedom to live their next life. Sure that’s not easy - but hey this is life and death we are talking about. If anyone said it was easy we’d know flat out - that’s not true.
For most of us, we come back and do as we did before. But we also can get caught up in peer pressure and cultures and ideals and loose our sense of what it is that we are supposed to be doing. Maybe a reason so many suffer from depression? Maybe.
One thing that is for certain, that when the time comes we will know more completely why we die to be reborn and the veils of the mystery of life will become apparent to one and all. Perhaps this is what we mean that we only use 10% of our brains - anyone who knows anything about the brain knows this is nonsense - but our awareness of what life is - perhaps that, on this day, is what we mean when we say we only know 10% of what is going on in this wondrous thing called life.
Whether we are aware of not, each and every day life gets better. People are getting wiser. Sure we have problems, but hey the Earth wasn’t built in a day, nor in 7. But hey best not get into that - sounds too much like religion and look how well that turned out!
Live well and honestly.
May your heart rest assured and in peace.
All’s well that never ends, but it doesn't mean it is without tears. :)
Spring 2016