LIFE – Let It Flow Easy!!
Honestly, I do not know if Death is a continuum of life, or what really happens after death as such since that hasn’t really become part of my conscious experience yet. But I do know that on this physical plane, change is the only constant. Wherever there is a beginning, there is an end. Wherever, there is an end, a new beginning happens. There is cycle in the weather pattern, leaves falling in Autumn and new leaves coming to life with the onset of Spring. We find beauty in the turning of colors of leaves in autumn, the barren trees, and then the birth of the new small tiny leaves on the trees in spring. Yet when it comes to us, we are unable to accept ourselves or our near and dear ones eventually growing old, and then dropping dead. For our obvious reasons of attachment, we are unable to find beauty in that transition.
They say that from nothingness we come here and from here we then go back into nothingness. But we are afraid of this journey of going back into nothingness from the physical plane. In a lot of ancient texts the body is considered a shell, a vehicle. If the energy is present at the time of birth of a baby, the baby cries. Otherwise, its considered a still birth. The energy is like the driver driving the physical body and when the energy leaves the body with that final exhalation, the body is dead.
Life is in between the breaths, just as music is in between the notes. Life happens when there is a constant flow of inhalation and exhalation and life comes to end or stops if there is no further inhalation. But before the final exhalation, there is a lot of preparation that happens at the physical level for the transition. Awareness of that preparation, is what makes the transition smooth for the person shedding the body and also the family of the person dying.
Our entire planet is made up of five elements – earth / soil, water, fire, air, space. In a lot of ancient traditions they say the energy which is in gross form experiencing life, prepares for the final transition through dissolution of the four essential elements – Earth ( our vitality and strength, sense of smell), water (blood, body fluids, sense of taste), fire ( major organs, skin, sense of sight), air ( breath of life). Its when Air leaves the body, the body finally drops dead. It is this dissolution of the elements and the lack of awareness of it, makes us fearful of the process of dying. There is certain degree of comfort that can be provided to the person making that transition with recitation of certain powerful mantras and words. Masters have said, it is only through mantra meditation which permeates into the subconscious mind, that at the time of death, will assist us in making this transition peacefully.
It is up to us, how we want to make that transition – with ignorance or with wisdom.