Sure as death and taxes

What is the one thing we all take for granted? Death of course. The overriding thought of the world is that death is inevitable. But what if this weren’t true?


What if death is only an illusion and you need never die?


I’m not talking here about artificial hearts, replacement organs, stem cells or any of that new technology which they say - when it comes - will prolong human life (almost) indefinitely. I’m talking about something more fundamental, the idea itself of death.


Everything we see around us confirms a reality that exists basically because we have affirmed it. What we focus our energy and minds on will appear in our lives. Not by any kind of magic but because we bring it about. Want something enough and you eventually go out, get the money and buy it. That’s how ‘attraction’ really works.


When we have a very strong belief about something we seek out evidence to confirm its validity. The evidence then further entrenches the belief.


People never question fundamental beliefs, and death is about as fundamental as you can get.


We see it every day. It’s all around us. We don’t even question it.


Well, your gran died, didn’t she, and your poor old granddad that you were so fond of. And your dog died. And the old man down the street who smelled of pee died. And Johnny Cash died, and Elvis too, and Michael Jackson and the whole world cried. Death happens. That’s something everyone knows, isn’t it? Period.


But what if everyone was wrong?


I’m not talking about being trapped in a body forever. After a few thousand years all your old buddies will have gone and it’ll be no use talking about the good old days then. Who’ll believe you? Who’ll listen?


I’m talking about death as an idea.

"Death is the result of the thought we call the ego"

(A Course In Miracles )

It cannot really be otherwise. You see, death is just a name we give to a changing state, but the state, via the designation has become synonymous with a finality which it does not merit. It’s an idea, that’s all.

Death and the body

Now, as with every other material thing the body follows the law of entropy and eventually wears out. There comes a time when you need to exit, when the caterpillar needs to become the butterfly. Right now the only way your mind knows to do this is from what it sees around it; suffering, gradual loss of control, and then demise. It knows no other way out. It stays with what’s familiar.


However, down the years it’s been said that certain yogis could leave their bodies at will, usually during meditation. That way they avoided the drama and suffering we associate with departing the body.

They breathe and they leave.


Simple.


Being in a body is really a metaphysical experience you are having. It’s a choice you made at one time, and you could unmake that choice.


Now, I’m not talking about suicide here. Let’s be really clear on that.


The very idea of immortality can scare us. It evokes images of Rider Haggard and Ayesha, and a relationship with life that is unnatural and unwelcome. That’s not what I mean at all. I’m not talking about a deathless state.


Instead I ask, what if death was just a myth, another story?


Our culture affirms our fascination with death; films, books, myths, legends. Even our speech is peppered with reminders of it. We speak of something being "as sure as death or taxes". We spend a great deal of energy avoiding death while at the same time nurturing it.

What you think of you become

If we start with the premise that thought is creative then what we think about habitually comes about. This applies to illness too. You get, more or less, what you expect in life. If you believe in poor health, a body that wears out at 70 and in inevitable death, doesn’t it follow that that’s exactly what you’ll get?


Why is there so much cancer around at the present time? Because we all buy into an idea called cancer. We believe in it. It may sound over simplistic but if we stop believing in these things, giving them fuel, they might just go away?


Try it.


The person who believes in the face of everything that she will get well, will. They person who believes they will succumb, dies.

A word of caution

Don’t take what I’m saying here as a new absolute. And don't go thinking just because you've read a few self-help books and attended a class on meditation that you're immortal. You're not!

Just give what I'm saying some consideration. Allow it in, that’s all.

What I'm saying is don’t make death wrong. Honour each person in the way of their passing. Within this current year several members of my immediate family left us, and I suppose that got me thinking on the subject. I miss them but I don’t see their going as a tragedy. Why should they remain in suffering to make me happy? They are now liberated to continue their journey through dimensions of time and space in ways that I cannot even imagine. I welcome that. I salute them. I just don’t see them as dead.


Those who have had near death experiences often tell us that just at or before the moment of death they find themselves out of their body and so avoid any real suffering. When someone dies young or in tragic circumstances our natural human empathy goes out to them. We label it in our minds as a disaster, as something that shouldn’t have happened. In short, we make it wrong.


But it doesn’t appear that way to them. Only to the onlooker. People speak of going into a white light, down a tunnel, encountering higher levels of consciousness, experiencing states of great peace and immeasurable love on the other side.


That doesn’t sound like death to me.

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