I have often contemplated why it is that I have been continually
seeking the Truth throughout my life? Why I have always wanted
to know answers to the eternal questions of life:
Who am I?
Why am I here?
What's my meaning and purpose (if any)?
What's the meaning and purpose of the Universe (if any)?
I know that I have always been interested in philosophy, but this
incessant drive makes me believe there is more to it than simply
an intellectual interest.
I always return to what I now know to be a key turning point in life,
and that is when I first came across the idea of death, as a child.
I am not sure how old I was? But I guess sometime between 4 and 6
years old? Probably, at school, I was told for the very first time in my
life that one day we all die. There is death. This was my first encounter
with the idea of death.
It's interesting, because this has to be a universal encounter for all
humanity. All of us, at some early childhood stage must learn the idea
of death. It must affect us all. One minute we are in blissful
ignorance in life, and the next, we start thinking of the idea of death.
Of course, I appreciate that some people will have a different view
about beyond death, depending on their religious or non-religious
beliefs,
Before this, you might say, I was in blissful ignorance. And because
I had not heard of death, I naturally acted in a more blissful way.
In my case, I was brought up in a Christian family and I was told
about Heaven and Hell, and at death, I would be judged.
Also, for the first time, I had to think about the notion of infinity.
Because I asked myself 'How long are we dead?' and the answer
came back 'forever and forever and forever and forever and ....'.
When I first thought about death and infinity, I vividly recall
how I immediately sat up in bed and said 'There is no death,
this is wrong. I want to be like Jesus Christ and live forever!
Later, I modified this thinking to 'we will find a cure for death
in my lifetime and we will all live forever'.
Later, I learned that 'the fear of death' is one of the primary
root causes for much of our actions and behaviours, even though
it might appear as something quite different, at the time,
throughout our lives. I learned that many people start to become
more religious as they get older and think more about mortality
and death, probably based on an increasing fear of death.
For most of us, as children and young adults, death is
a long way away and not an immediate concern.
This idea of death, if it is wrong, has much to answer for.
So maybe my prime motivator to seek the key answers to the key
questions in life, comes from the first encounter with the idea of
death.
But because I had problems with the stories my Christian Church
wanted me to believe, about sinning and judgement and Heaven
and Hell, I looked elsewhere. Not realising, at the time, that
Mystical Christianity had some good teachings and answers
about life and death and that we can all have a direct experience
with God, as opposed to just through organised religions.
Now here comes the paradox!
At the age of around 30 years, I discovered Eastern Philosophies
and Religions that teach eternal life, and only death of the body.
Some talk about discarding the body, as an old coat, and putting
on a new one and reincarnation of the spirit. Some talk about
the soul continually coming back until it is fully realized and /or
enlightened, and does not need to come back to learn anymore.
What is fascinating is that the Christian based notion of death
tends to instill a fear of dying, and many of the Eastern based
notions of death tend to instill a fear of coming back with a new
life, and more suffering. So one can fear both dying and coming
back to life depending on your beliefs formed from childhood.
So we are all battling with the notion of death.
But my point of writing this piece is to say that it is my belief
that our biggest mistake is not how we interpret death for
the first time, as children, even though this may well even prove
to be one of the most traumatic experiences in our lives, but
the even bigger mistake is to believe that we are seperate
beings with seperate lives !!
If we accept that we are, in reality, in Truth, One humanity
that is all connected at a higher level, we can accept that
humanity is one large moving Ocean of life, and that the
'individual' is just a temporary material manifestation
from the Ocean of life that grows and subsides back into
that same living Ocean of ongoing life.
Then there is no death. The death of the individual is a
mistaken notion based on incomplete knowledge.
Here is the next paradox - it is not until there is death of the idea
of the seperate individual that we can truly see death for what
it is (not) !
So I don't think that I became a seeker of the Truth
through just a fear of death necessarily. I think my intuition,
or inner wisdom that we all have, told me that the idea
of death I was taught is fundamentally wrong.
I maintain that we all intuitively know the Truth when we hear it!
And, intuitively, I believe we all know that the idea of One Ocean
of Life that keeps manifesting 'life waves' and subsiding and
manifesting 'new life waves' is right.
At least, it feels natural and right to me!
I can resonate with the reality of no seperate self and
that we are All One and, whilst we appear to be seperate
waves that have the One in us All, we are really the
One, continually expressing itself in billions of different
beings and ways.
Ron Young
More at:
http://www.in-love-with-wisdom.com/
