Whether you ascribe the secrets of happenings in your like to karma, to fate,
to other cause, leave some space for the X-factor, the unknown and unknowable
which does not belong to anything which you can measure or comprehend.
DEATH, DYING, AND IMMORTALITY
Continuity, transition, and transformation
1
Life-in-Itself is infinite and unchanging, but there
is an end to the kind of experience undergone by the living entity in its
finite human phase.
2
Just as sound goes back into silence but may emerge
again at some later time, so this little self goes back into the greater being
from which it too may emerge again at another time.
3
We worry ourselves through the days of an existence
which is itself but a day. A profound sadness falls on the heart when it
realizes the transient nature of all worldly things and all human being.
4
If decay and disintegration were not present at some
stage, if our life spans were extended to say double their present length, then
the old would outnumber all other sections of society. Stasis would overwhelm
culture because the bodily slowdown would reflect itself mentally. The
World-Mind had a better idea.
5
Human life steadily and unfailingly burns away like
the candle in a man's hands.
6
Individuated life is forever doomed to die whereas
the ALL which receives the dying can itself never die.
7
Even stars must die one day, more violently and
dramatically than most human beings, for even they come under the law that
whatever had a beginning must also have an ending.
8
We hear of other people dying and make suitable
comment, but we do not feel that the time is coming when this fate will
be ours too.
9
It is not so much because death deprives man of his
possessions and relations that he dreads it, as the possibility that it deprives
him of his consciousness - that is, his self, his ego.
10
Those who deplore, lament, or wail at the
inevitability of death are viewing it in a very narrow, short-sighted way. The
more mature ought to be thankful that we humans are not condemned to remain
forever confined to a single body: this would indeed become a source of anxiety,
if not of hopelessness.
11
Whether this bundle of personal desires and
memories which is the ego, but which some of the pious call their soul, will be
annihilated at death or perpetuated, is not an anxiety for the philosopher.
12
The more they enjoy the world the more they suffer
when they leave it - unless they have learnt to put detachment behind the
enjoyment.
13
No force can be destroyed; it can only be
rechannelled. Life is a force; death is its rechannelling.
14
The innermost being of man, his mysterious
Overself, links him with God. It does not change with time nor die with the
years. It is eternal.
15
Electrical fields have been detected by the use of
newly developed micro-volt-meters around all living things, but there was no
field around a dead man. Many years ago in the The Quest of the Overself
the existence of an electromagnetic connection between the photograph of a man
and the man himself was revealed, and its disappearance on his death was also
recorded. Thus science begins to offer a basis for a part of our original
statement.
16
We are tenants in this rented house of the body. We
have no certainty of possession. There is no lease on parchment paper with a
government stamp to guarantee even a single year's holding.
17
It would be a curious state of affairs if the sole
purpose of life were to be death, a cessation of all interest in all the
activities included under the heading "human existence." Has the divine
intelligence nothing better to offer us?
18
The voyage of a man's life always ends in the port
of death. Let him not forget this when tempted by fortune into undue elation or
tossed by misfortune into undue misery.
19
This dismal fact is the mark on all things, and
creatures: that they pass away, have a transient existence, and in this absolute
sense lack reality. They appear for awhile, seem substantial and eventful, but
are in truth prolonged mirages. If this were all the story it would be
melancholy enough. But it is not. That whence they came, to which they go
back, does not pass away. That is the Real, that is the Consciousness
which gave the universe, of which we are a part, its existence. Out of
that stems this little flower in each life which is the best, highest self. If
we search for it and discover it, we recover our origin, return to our source,
and as such do not pass away. Yes, the forms are lost in the end but the
being within them is not.
20
Ordinarily, the date and even the place where one
is to die is preordained.
21
Dying into annihilation is one thing but dying into
another form of consciousness is quite different. It is the latter which happens
at the passing away of the life-force from the body.
22
If the thought of death horrifies so many people,
the thought of the void - of the utter annihilation of ego, of the abandonment
of everything and of the cessation of suffering, frustration, and anxiety which
belong to life in the world - is a welcome idea for those who think more deeply.
But since life is only partly suffering, since there are also joys and
satisfactions in it and positive values which ought not to suffer destruction, a
better balanced view is provided by philosophy and that is that consciousness,
real consciousness, cannot die, but only returns to its ultimate source.
23
We ought to be glad that we do not live forever. It
is a frightening thought. If there were no death we would go on and on and on,
captives in the body, having tried all experiences which promised much but in
the end yielded nothing. No, it is good that in the end we are released from the
physical tomb, as Plato called it, and will be able to enjoy a period of
dignified rest until we plunge back again into the next re-embodiment.
24
You raise one of the points on which I happen to
disagree with your respected master, and that is his experiment in the direction
of attaining physical immortality. From a scientific standpoint, I would not
dare to say that anything is impossible or to set any limits to human
achievement; but from a philosophic standpoint I follow the Buddha whose words
on this point are as follows: 1) "That which, whether conscious or unconscious,
is not subject to decay and death, that you will not find." 2) "No Samana,
Brahman nor Mara, nor any being in the Universe can bring about the following
five things, namely, 'That which is subject to old age, should not grow old;
that which is subject to sickness should not be sick; that which is subject to
death, should not die; that which is subject to decay should not decay; that
which is liable to pass away should not pass away.' "
25
What man undergoes in his physical life seems so
real, so lasting, and so intimate - yet it is only a brief episode in the
immensely larger span of his cosmic cycle.
26
Since death is the certain future of all men, being
an unalterable feature of the World-Idea, and since life would be intolerable if
they were not given such pauses to recuperate from its demands, and lastly since
there is nothing they can do to avoid it, they might as well discard the
negative but common way of looking at it.
27
Time is not only the great healer and not only the
great teacher but also the true friend for it brings the Messenger of Death, who
brings peace.
28
The sadness of a withered flower, its head wilted,
its stem shrivelled, its leaves dry corpses, is a sober reminder of beauty's
fragility and our own fatal destination.
29
Why talk only of rebirth? Do we not experience
death just as often?
30
The end of life, as of journeys, is contained in
its beginning.
31
The philosopher knows the higher worth of life and
appreciates it. But at the same time he knows the fleeting value of life and
deprecates it.
32
The inner work of philosophy results in liberation
from the fear of death - whether the death which comes naturally through old age
or that which comes violently through war.
33
The pillage of time can be avoided by no one. It
takes his years, and in the end his life.
34
The confrontation with death is not a pleasant
prospect for anyone who is not in a condition of extreme suffering of some kind,
emotional or physical. The thought of being parted from everything and everyone
seems hideous. And yet, in the event itself, there may happen a beautiful,
smooth passing-out.
35
So long as man listens to his little ego alone, and
lets the voice of the Overself remain unheard and unknown, so long will all his
cunning and his caution avail him little in the end when the body has to be left
and the mind must return to its own proper sphere.
36
If life is the last personal hope, death is the
last social blessing. Without it the animal and human worlds would become
horrors. If with its presence we complain of overpopulation, where could we all
live together in its absence? The World-Idea does not include such a fault,
fortunately.
37
A time comes when the prudent person, feeling
intuitively or knowing medically that he has entered the last months or years of
his life, ought to prepare himself for death. Clearly an increasing withdrawal
from worldly life is called for. Its activities, desires, attachments, and
pleasures must give way more and more to repentance, worship, prayer,
asceticism, and spiritual recollectedness. It is time to come home.(P)
38
Nobody has to teach us to hold on to life and to be
repelled by the thought of our death. Why?
39
When a man arrives at the biblical three score and
ten years allotted to him, as I have, he is likely to hear, with some frequency,
of deaths among those he has known as friends or as questers. Where I have
witnessed the passing-out, I have been much impressed by the radiant smile, the
strainless peace, upon the face of the dying person.
40
The ordinary human attitude towards death pushes
its very thought as far from oneself as possible, prefers not to consider it;
the unpleasantness and distress, possibly the pain, which too often accompany
the crossing-over are too unwelcome, if not unbearable.
41
Even a little perception of, or faith in, the
World-Idea redeems the littleness of so many human lives, and at their end, in
dying moments, becomes tremendously important.
42
Nothing can so easily give the thoughtful man
detachment from things as the news that he has only a very limited time left to
live.
43
If we have all had many many previous lives on
earth, we have also had many many previous deaths on earth. The actual
experience of dying must leave some residual lesson or meaning or message behind
in the subconscious.
44
We who find ourselves in old age with brittle bones
and shrunken flesh, with wrinkled face and greyed hair, may find this a
depressing experience. But like every other situation in life there is another
way to look at it - perhaps in compensation for what we suffer. And that is to
sum up the lessons of a lifetime and prepare ourselves for the next incarnation
so that we shall better perform the necessary work on ourselves when that comes.
45
It is not pleasant to think of the decay which
overtakes the faculties of so many persons who live into their seventies or
eighties, yet it is a necessary thought for those who are only half that age or
less to entertain. It may act as a reminder or even as a spur to quicken their
pace upon the Quest.
46
It was a man very shrewd, very intelligent, very
well educated, a lawyer by profession who, while he was convalescing from a
heart attack, said to me, "I have been very ambitious, but I failed in my
ambitions; only now however do I see that all that, the ambition and the work
and the efforts which followed it and depended on it, was futile activity, mere
agitation, a filling up of time." He died a year or two later, not a happy man.
He had not been without spiritual feelings and intuitions, but his weaknesses,
his sensuality, and his ambition overcame him until it was too late - until the
shadow of death became his tutor.
47
Life is a preparation for death, just as death is a
preparation for re-entry into life.
48
All instinct and all force of will resists the
image of one's own ultimate passing away, one's own inevitable death. And yet
this attitude depends, in part, upon one's age. Some reconciliation comes with
old age.
49
There is a part of himself which cannot die, cannot
pass into annihilation. But it is very deep down. The sage encounters it before
bodily death and learns to establish his consciousness therein. The others
encounter it during some phase in the after-death state.
50
Much confusion has been caused, and much atheism
generated, by the very limited knowledge and very large ignorance of many
expounders of popular religion and spiritualistic cults. They teach that the
human being, after a first short appearance on this planet for an insignificant
period (for what is seventy years or so against the millions of years which
geology proclaims as its history?) will pass into a post-mortem state wherein it
will dwell forever, that is, for all eternity. That the little ego with all its
attributes and qualities, will keep the personal identity and the personal
existence of that brief appearance on earth unchanged, congealed into
permanency, outliving the earth itself, reunited with family and friends,
finding itself among primitive people of the Iron Age and among the
cave-dwellers, is a ridiculous notion. It is so utterly unscientific an idea, so
appallingly opposed to real religion, as to be ludicrous.
51
When the decreed time comes the body is discarded
but the mind remains. It passes through varied experiences and finally sleeps
them off. After a while it awakes deeply refreshed. Then the old propensities
slowly revive and it returns to this world, putting on a new body in new
surroundings.
52
The eternity which we are supposed to enter after
death, one where a particular form and ego are supposed to be preserved forever,
is absurd. But there is a true eternity where form and ego, time and space, are
transcended.
53
Since the Overself is outside time it is also
outside events. Nothing happens in it or to it.
54
Spirit is not entrapped in matter, the soul is not
immured in the bodily person, divinity is not asleep in the flesh. It is the
ego, the I-thought, we who are entrapped, asleep, immured.
55
The notion of an immortality that keeps a single
personality quite static, perpetuating its failings and foolishness, is small
and mean, poor and limited. It belittles God's purpose and shames man's
idealism.
56
This little bit of existence which is mine will not
last. The consciousness will be removed from this world, the body will be
destroyed, the relationships will be slowly or abruptly severed.
57
With death, consciousness takes on a new condition
but does not pass into mere emptiness, is not crumbled away with the fleshly
brain into dust. No! It survives because it is the real being of a man.
58
The same destiny which brought us to birth will
bring us to death. And just as a drama of different phases of consciousness
unfolded itself after birth, so a drama of changes in consciousness will unfold
itself after death. It is not annihilation that we ought to fear, for that will
not happen, but rather the evil in our own self, and the pain that follows in
the train of that evil as a shadow follows a man in the sunlight.
59
The shadow being which emerges from the body at
death, which resembles the body and lives for a while an independent existence
in the world of spirits, is doomed to decay and die in its own turn.
60
Whoever has been freed from the demands of his
earthly self, and from the desires of his ignorant self, does not need to return
here after passing into the disembodied state.
61
Life between incarnations consists of a dream-like
state followed by a period resembling deep sleep. There is, however, no
remembrance of one's former birth upon emerging from this state.
62
The difference between life as we ordinarily know
it and as it appears between incarnations is that here we have an apparent
mixture of two worlds, the mental and the phenomenal, whereas there only the
former exists.
63
We pass through the dream and deep sleep states
after death just as we do before it.
64
With the understanding of life in the body comes
the knowledge of what life is without the body, that is, death. Both are
existences in Mind, which is their reality.
65
The multitude are brought up to be pleased with the
prospect of living (after death) in eternity (as egos). But a remnant who have
pondered long and deeply on what this really means shudder at the same prospect.
66
Concealed behind the passing dream of life there is
a world of lasting reality. All men awaken at the moment of death but only a few
men are able to resist falling at once into the astral dream. These are the few
who sought to die to their lower selves whilst they were still alive. These are
the mystics who enter reality.
67
Those whose thoughts are limited to earthly things,
do not change with the change called death. They stay earth-bound, pathetically
ineffectual and bored, unless they are able to possess or obsess someone still
living in this world.
68
Whole scenes out of the years from childhood to the
present unwind themselves during the post-death experience before the spirit's
mental gaze.
69
Every unfulfilled desire acts as an attractive
force to draw us back to earth again after every death.
70
Death is either unconscious stupor, blank sleep,
partially conscious dream sleep, or fully conscious awareness.
71
If you kill a man, the Law of Consequences compels
you to carry that man's corpse with you wherever you go. At first you do it in
memory pictures that create fear of punishment, but after death you will
see the victim and hear his cries all over again.
72
I am sorry to say that the theosophy of latter days
has over-emphasized the value of individuality in contrast to the theosophy of
Blavatsky, who knew the truth. Let me tell you that the so-called astral plane
is equivalent to the dreamworld and nothing more. Hence the after-death state is
just like a very vivid dream, after all. Therefore in the true esoteric school
we do not pay much attention to such matters but concern ourselves with life
here and now, on this earth, with which we have to deal whether we like it or
not.
73
Our troubles are but transitory, whereas our
spiritual hopes survive the incarnations and bridge the gaps between births.
74
If it be asked why this purificatory experience
after death does not alter the character that reappears in the next birth, the
answer is that it is a half-introverted, dreamy state which only vaguely and
superficially touches the consciousness. Only here in the awakened, fully
extroverted state of earth-world does experience etch itself in sharp, vivid
lines on the ego.
75
This dream-like progress after death is not
valueless. It acts as a reminder during each pre-birth of the true purpose of
life.
76
Pet animals do not end their existence at the
body's end. Their invisible spirit form hovers around the vicinity of the master
or mistress left behind. They are fully conscious and as far as they know still
in the physical world. But with the passage of time, this consciousness
gradually fades and they enter a sleep state which ends only with their
reincarnation. Their expectation of being fed or petted is also fulfilled for
them by their own mental power working creatively.
77
So hard are the lessons which earth-life forces us
to learn, so hard its sufferings, that it is only fair to say that the bliss to
which we shall emerge after leaving it, or even now in mystic states, is not
less in any way.
78
The third heaven is the loftiest and happiest state
to which the spirit of those who have passed out of this body can rise. All that
is finest and noblest in an individual being alone flowers here. It is
blissfully peaceful but alas! must in its turn also pass and yield to a region
where individuality no longer exists, where all previous existences, all
personal memories must go. "From God we came, to God we go."
79
How short a time does an animal need for the rest
period between its births by contrast with that needed between human births! In
its case just months, in the human case, more years than it lived on earth.
80
The sense of time between incarnations varies. Five
minutes to one is a hundred years to another.
81
The discarnate man naturally turns towards his
memories of earth-life, dreams of those he does not want to let go, and thus
unconsciously recreates his former conditions and environments. He lives in his
private thought-world and among his personal thought-forms. Is it surprising
then that spiritist communications are so discrepant, so conflicting, in their
accounts of the other world?
82
We leave the body with the first death and the ego
with the second death. But this is not the end. In the Overself we find our
final being.
83
When the end of life comes, and a man goes out of
it like a candle in the wind, what then happens depends upon his character, his
prevailing consciousness, his preparedness, and his last thoughts.
84
I have witnessed some advanced souls going through
the process of passing to another sphere of consciousness, the process we call
death, who spread mental sunshine around so that the bereaved ones gathered at
the bedside felt it as a consoling counterbalance to their natural human grief.
The truth made some kind of impression upon them that this universal event in
Nature can actually be a change to brighter, happier, and freer existence.
85
The anonymous young airman who wrote to his mother
just before he was killed in battle: "I have no fear of death; only a queer
elation," possessed something more than mere courage. For the time at least he
had passed over from self-identification with the body to self-identification
with the mind.
86
The aspirant whose efforts to attain inner freedom
and union with the Overself while living seem to have been thwarted by fate or
circumstances, may yet find them rewarded with success while dying. Then, at the
very moment when consciousness is passing from the body, it will pass into the
Overself.
87
What sort of a death experience is he likely to
have? What if he dies, as Ramana Maharshi died, as Ramakrishna died, as heroes
of the Spirit - some anonymous and obscure, others famous - known to this author
died, of that dreadful and contemporary malady, cancer? I can only tell what I
have seen and heard when present during the last days as privileged co-sharer of
the unbelievable atmosphere. To each there came a vision, a light seen, first
far off, later all around; first a pinpoint, later a ray, then a wide shaft,
lastly filling the whole room. And with the Light came peace; it came as an
accompaniment to the cancer's pain, a compensation that as it grew made the
peace grow and gave detachment, until to the amazement of doctors, nurses,
family, the triumphant words were uttered before the final act, Spirit's victory
over matter proclaimed. This is not to say that it makes no difference whether
one dies quietly in sleep through nothing worse than age, or whether one dies
through cancer, that peace and pain are equally acceptable to the emotions of an
illumined man. I do not write here of the extreme fanatical ascetic. To him it
may be a matter of indifference.(P)
88
If there is any loss of consciousness during the
change called death, it is only a brief one, as brief or briefer than a night's
sleep. Many of the departed do not even know at the time what has really
happened to them and still believe themselves to be physically alive. For they
find themselves apparently able to see others and hear voices and touch things
just as before. Yet all these experiences are entirely immaterial, and take
place within a conscious mind that has no fleshly brain.(P)
89
The dying man should cross his arms over his chest
with interlaced fingers. He should withdraw the mind from everything earthly and
raise it lovingly in the highest aspiration.(P)
90
This is the way a man may best die - while resting
on a chair or couch or sleeping in a bed, a peaceful expression on his face as
if seeing or hearing something of unusual beauty, a pleased expression around
the mouth.(P)
91
It is a teaching in both India and China that by
concentrating his thoughts during his dying moments on the name of his spiritual
leader with full faith, undivided ardour, and sincere deep attention, a man
saves himself some or all of the post-mortem purificatory torments that he would
otherwise have to undergo. It is also written that if he prefers to concentrate
on the kind of environment in which his next birth is to appear, he contributes
toward its possible realization.(P)
92
Death is the great revealer. In that vivid but
dreamlike experience which follows it, each man is shown what he has
really done with his earth-life, what he should have done with it,
and what he failed to do with it.
93
At death consciousness passes through an
interesting phase, for it really is a passing out from the body and from the
world. Memories go, the past blots itself out, faces blur and identifications of
their owners disintegrate. Tired, drowsy, overwhelmed by a feeling of
withdrawing: mental activities, ratiocinations, imaginings, all crumble away and
then there is nothing.
94
Just when life is ebbing fast away, when death is
vividly in attendance, the long-sought but little found state of enlightenment
may arise and accompany the event.
95
The process of dying may become a fulfilment of
long years of aspiration for the quester or a veritable initiation into the soul
for the ordinary man.
96
There is a particular moment while a person is
dying when the Overself takes over the entire process, just as it does when he
is falling asleep. But if he clings involuntarily and through inveterate habit
to his smaller nature, then he is only partly taken over; the remainder is
imprisoned in his littleness.
97
The Manicheans of medieval times assisted the act
of dying by a complete fast from food and drink.
98
The act of dying has no suffocating feeling
connected with it other than during the momentary swoon. On the contrary, it is
genuinely a liberating process.
99
Deep into the centre of his being does a man's mind
withdraw as he passes out of this life, if his karma or his aspiration, his
stage of development are not obstructive.
100
There was in the dying man's room such an air of
supernatural forces at work, such an awareness of the presence of another world
of being, that almost no one failed to notice it. Even the attending physician,
hardened agnostic in religion, a mild sceptic of survival, confessed to these
strange feelings.
101
I have written of the benign peace which death
may bring, but not to all. Some enter it with panic, others with fear, yet
others with resentment.
102
I have seen upon the face of certain dying or
just-deceased persons, an expression of joyous inner calm that reassures the
sensitive onlooker not only about their inner condition at the time but also
about death's aftermath.
103
Dying can be a dull experience or a thrilling
one. That depends on the person, on his pre-history and his inner history.
104
When he was dying, Heisenberg said to von
Weizsäcker, "It is very easy: I did not know this before." At another moment he
said, "I see now that physics is of no importance, that the world is illusion."
He passed away in peace.
105
The poignant realization that he is separating
himself from so much that he prized or loved, regarded as essential or was
hoping ardently to attain, afflicts many a dying person. I am reminded of Kahlil
Gibran, celebrated author of the powerful poem, The Prophet, and also a
talented painter. He was dying of consumption and said mournfully to another
poet, who told me later, "There is so much beauty in the world and life, to see
or to create, which I shall now never know."
106
The tremendous event of dying and leaving the
body does not interrupt his quest.
107
When the time for exit from this world-scene duly
comes, he will approach it with trust - feeling that the power which supported
him in previous crises will not desert him now.
108
In these closing hours of life with its
lengthening shadows, one seeks to collect oneself and be ready for the final
passing. How well it is to gather those reserves and foster those perceptions
which now support one with, may I humbly say, a wise divine passivity. The end
will come but it will be a transformation of form and a passage to a freer
higher state.
109
If he accepts the decree of destiny quietly and
obediently, if he is willing to pass, without rebellion and without fighting,
out of this world when the ordained hour arrives, he achieves that peace of mind
which the prophet Muhammed called "Islam" - a resignation to, and harmony with,
God. It is as far as detachment from the ego can go without losing the ego
itself.
110
When describing the vision of the past of a dying
man, insert at the appropriate place, "For a brief while the ego becomes its own
spectator. For a brief time it sees itself unblinded by desire and ungoverned by
vanity. Then only does it see and expect the justice behind its sorrows."
111
In the case of violent or accidental death, there
will be a period of unconscious deep sleep for an ordinarily good person, but of
being consciously earthbound for an evil one.
112
The process of dying is one to study. It is full
of significance. So many things and interests to which the dying person has been
attached are now to be left behind, so many persons to whom he has been tied
with bonds of affection or repelled by feelings of dislike are about to
disappear.
113
It is paradoxical that the moment of his death
should automatically bring to life again all of a man's past. He has to repeat
it all over again, this time from a different point of view, for the selfish,
coloured, and distorting operation of the ego is absent. Now he sees it from an
impersonal and uncoloured point of view. In other words, he sees the real facts
for what they truly are, which means that he sees himself for what he really is.
His brief experience over, he then begins to live like a man in a dream. His own
will is not responsible for what happens to him as a dreamer and it is just the
same with what happens to him as a spirit. He does not personally and
consciously choose, decide, and predetermine the course of his spirit life any
more than his dream life. It flows on by its own spontaneous accord here as
there. This is more vividly brought home to him, if he is an evil man, when the
after-death experience turns into a nightmare.
114
It would be wrong to say that the pictorial
review of life experience when dying is merely a mental transference from one's
own shoes to those of the persons with whom one has been in contact during the
life just passed, as the pictures unveil before him. What really happens is a
transference from the false ego to the true Self, from the personal to the
impersonal. It is a realization of the true meaning of each episode of the life
from a higher point of view.
115
All possessions are left behind when a man makes
his exit from this world. Every physical belonging, however prized, and even
every human association, however beloved, are taken abruptly from him by death.
This is the universal and eternal law which was, is, and ever shall be. There is
no way to cheat or defeat it. Nevertheless there are some persons who, in a
single particular only, escape this total severance. Those are the ones who
sought and found, during their earthly life, the inspiration of a dead master or
the association with a living one. His mental picture will vividly arise in
their last moments on earth, to guide them safely into the first phase of
post-mortem existence, to explain and reassure them about the unfamiliar new
conditions.
116
I would like to die as peaceably as Lu
Hsian-Shan, the Chinese mentalist philosopher. One evening he knew his hour had
come, so he bathed, put on clean clothes, sat down and remained in silent
meditation until he passed away seventeen hours later.
117
As the soul prepares or begins to pass out of the
body, one of two things may happen. Depending upon the direction and strength of
its attachments or desires, it is pulled away from them into unconsciousness, a
kind of sleep. Or it recognizes places and persons connected with it, and if
knowledge or experience are present, co-operates with the passing and moves out
to a higher plane for a blissful sleep. After a while both must awaken to live
again.
118
(a) A lady aristocrat related this story of her
uncle who was dying as the result of an accident. He found himself out of the
body. It was a delicious experience, but he was told that it was not the time
for his exit and although he had lost the desire for earthly life, he found
himself back in the body again. He recovered and lived. (b) Another woman of
high social standing related that while in deep meditation she passed into a
visionary condition in which she found herself out of the body. The condition
was satisfying in the highest degree. But she was told that she still had
something to do on earth and unwillingly had to return. She felt that with a
little effort on her part she could prevent return, but destiny was stronger.
(c) An Austrian female homeopath developed the practice of meditation and
eventually had an experience of leaving the body and feeling intensely happy as
the result. She wanted to stay like that but then remembered her responsibility
towards her daughter and came back into the body again. (d) A Jewish lady who
had been miraculously saved from death in the gas chambers with her mother while
at Auschwitz camp began to practise meditation after being rejected when
applying for admission to a convent as a nun. She successfully reached great
peace and bliss, but became too sensitive to associate with the world. She had a
vision of leaving the body during meditation. She felt as if she were in heaven.
She prayed not to have to go back to the world, but she was intuitively told
that it was her duty to do so. She accepted it as God's will and is now trying
to adjust herself to conditions here.
119
What was the name of that artist who as he lay
dying asked for the window to be opened wide so that he could see the snowy
summits of the mountains outside? He wanted his last thoughts, his last
consciousness, to be of them. Why?
120
We may deplore our foolish behaviour in life, our
stupid errors or our fleshly weaknesses, but in those moments of dying we have
the chance to die in wisdom and in peace. Yes, it is a chance given to us, but
we have to take it by keeping our sight fixed on the highest that we know.
121
Death can open out higher possibilities to the
man who leaves this existence in faith, who trusts the Overself and commits
himself to its leading without clinging to the body which is being left.
122
It is better to pass out of the physical body in
possession of consciousness rather than in a state of drugged anesthesia. This
applies more particularly to spiritual aspirants. But where there is great pain,
local anesthesia may be unobjectionable.
123
Only in those last few days or hours or minutes
do most men find out the truth that as one kind of life leaves both them and
their flesh, another opens up to them.
124
The awful aloneness which confronts man this side
of death does not exist for the philosopher, nor for the truly devout person.
125
When he lies almost dying he may receive
verification of the belief that a dying votary will see his god or guru or
saviour come to take or guide his soul to the higher world.
126
Drowning persons who were saved and survived have
told of the feeling of time slipping backward and their whole lifetime being
replayed. This is an experience which is not theirs alone; it happens to all who
pass through the portal of death.
127
Confusion, fear, clinging to the body or other
physical possessions, panic, severe depression - they make the passage through
the death experience harder than it would otherwise have been.
129
Rabelais' last words, "The farce is finished,"
say much in little space.
130
The best way to minister to a dying person
depends on various factors: each situation is different and individual. In
general it may be suggested that the first thing is not to panic but to remain
calm. The next is to look inwardly for one's own highest reference-point. The
third is then to turn the person over to the Higher Power. Finally, and
physically, one may utter a prayer aloud, or chant a mantram on his behalf -
some statement indicating that the happening is more a homecoming than a
homeleaving.
131
Sympathy and understanding go to those who have
endured the passing beyond of someone precious to them. Healing will, however,
come in time. Those who are thus suffering should resign themselves to the will
of Destiny and believe that the loved one is living still, and will return.
132
A Buddhist method of driving away obstructing
spirits is to snap the fingers around the head for a while and utter the mantram
"PHAT" ("crack"). This method is also used as part of the deathrite at the
moment of the soul's departure from the body.
133
The student has learned that the death of the
body is extrinsic to the consciousness, which lives on unchanged in itself. But
when death claims the body of someone he loves, his faith will be put to test.
At such a time, he must remember that the loved one has actually evolved to a
more highly developed phase of life.
134
The passing away of a loved one is a heavy blow -
one for which most people are improperly prepared, because they are not yet
willing to face the inescapable fact that all life is stamped with transiency
and loss and sorrow. Only by seeking refuge in the immortality of the Overself
and in discovering the truth and wisdom of the Divine Purpose, can we also learn
how to endure the suffering on the ever-changing face of life. "Letting go" is
the hardest of all lessons to learn; yet it is the most necessary for spiritual
advancement.
135
Although it is painful to lose our loved ones,
this is often the only way by which we learn of our deep need to form some inner
detachment, as well as the unalterable fact that worldly life is inseparable
from suffering. Such bitter lessons are instructive; they make us aware that we
must turn to the spiritual Quest if we are to find contentment and enduring
happiness.
136
Loss, as in the case of death of a wife or
husband, has been known to be a principle cause of the necessary receptive state
of mind with which one has approached philosophy. This is significant to the
student on the Quest.
137
The passing of a loved one is usually a major
experience, and one's reaction to it shows the degree of development attained.
He must remember that sometimes it is best for a loved one to pass away if in
doing so he or she is rid of a serious and painful bodily disease. He must also
be happy in the thought that the loved one has now gone on to a sphere of
existence where happiness, bliss, comfort, and rest can be found as can only be
imagined but not found here. He may be assured that the loved one is really in a
better world where only the beautiful side of life can penetrate and where ugly
and base things can never find lodgement. He may help best at such a moment by
an occasional loving remembrance during the peak point of meditation. For the
sensitive aspirant, such an experience as seeing death face to face as it were,
is always a great one. It should mark the beginning of a new period, of a more
vivid evaluation of the transient character of earthly life, and result in a
powerful aspiration to wrest something of an enduring character from the
comparatively few years spent on this space-time level.
138
To someone who believes that life continues
beyond the body's death, a funeral seems a useless affair. But it compels the
mourners to remember and think of, for a few hours, what they ordinarily forget
- that they too must go, that all personal matters come to an abrupt end, and
that the person himself must part from every one of his possessions. Such a
ritual, otherwise boring and tedious, is a salutary reminder.
139
One hopes that those bereaved by the death of
fine young men in the war may have begun to feel some of time's healing touch.
It is a source of great grief to lose someone young and brilliant at such a
time. One cannot answer the question so often asked as to why such a man died
when he was living so useful a life. This is a mystery of the kind we must leave
to the Will of God, with faith. However, this faith is not the same as blind
faith, for there is certainly Divine Wisdom underlying the event. These young
men still live and will live. They have passed into a brighter and happier world
and there is no need to grieve for them.
140
We must bear with resignation and acceptance the
coming of this inevitable visitor, Death, to those we love. It is useless to
rebel or complain against a law of life which has been such since time began.
141
He who has had the good fortune to have a loving
companion in marriage should not rail at Destiny when this helpmate is taken
away. The same karma which brought the two together has also severed the
relationship. But this is only temporary. There is really no loss, as mind
speaks to mind in silent moments. Love and companionship of high quality will
act as an attractive force to bring them together again somewhere, sometime.
Many feel this in the inner understanding.
142
When death is properly understood, and the
immateriality of being is deeply felt, there will be no more mourning funerals.
If the deceased has had a long and full incarnation, his passing will be
accepted philosophically. The bereaved person faces the problem of adjusting
himself to a new cycle of the outer life. During the transitional period, he may
feel lonely and uncertain of the future. At such a time, the inner meaning of
both this period and the coming cycle should be sought.
143
Cremation is a definite and emphatic challenge.
If one really believes that the soul of man is his real self, or even if one
believes that the thinking power of man is his real self, then there can be no
objection to it, but, on the contrary, complete approval of it. The method of
burying dead bodies is fit only for one who believes that this thinking power is
a product of the body's brain, that is, for a materialist.(P)
144
I recommend the process of cremation to dispose
of the body of a deceased person. An interval of three days should take place
between the death and the actual cremation, because that is the transition
period which makes complete the passing out of the spirit.
145
The honour that is shown to a corpse by
attempting to prolong its form is misplaced. It is a glaring contradiction to
accept the credo of survival and then give to dead flesh what should be given to
living soul. A rational funeral would be a completely private one. A rational
funeral service would be one held to memorialize the memory of the deceased, and
held not in the presence but in the absence of the corpse. A rational disposal
would be cremation, not burial. The psychic and spiritual health of a community
demands the abolition of graveyards.
146
In ancient Egypt the common people could not
afford, were not allowed, and had no reason to turn their dead into mummies; but
they did practise a curious kind of burial. The corpse was put into a shallow
round hole with the chin resting upon the drawn-up knees - sometimes in the
sitting and sometimes in the reclining position. This was intended to imitate
the exact position of the embryo in the woman's womb and to symbolize an
impending rebirth into the next world.
147
Why some are taken away by death at a young age
and with a lovely soul is one of those mysteries which we must leave unexplained
with the laws of destiny and recompense. Despite the natural feeling of being
grievously wounded, the bereaved person should resign himself in trust to the
will of God and in faith that the departed will be taken care of wherever he is
by the Father of us all.
148
The passing away of a loved one and what the
personal loss means to the bereaved is, of course, beyond the reach of any
external comment which can be made. Words seem cold and useless at such times;
all one can do is to accept, and humbly resign himself to, the Higher Will.
149
When some great souls passed away they took with
them the spiritual and vital essence which others felt and from which they
gained some inspiration.
150
This attachment to one tomb of a relative is
consciously or unconsciously meant to keep the deceased person's memory alive.
But this intention can be realized in other more hygienic and rational ways.
151
He or she who has lost a loved one should
concentrate on realizing that distance in no way alters real love, that
the mental presence of the beloved must be made as nearly real as the physical
presence as he can make it, and that he must rise to the ability of finding
satisfaction from these meetings in the mental world. Finally, there is always
the old talisman of remembering the Universal and to keep on remembering it;
this in time has a curious power, not only of helping to endure the
maladjustments of fate but gradually of correcting them.
152
What spiritualism is mostly trafficking with,
where it is not subconscious dramatization of the mind's own content, is less
often spirits of dead men as spirits of half-animal, half-human beings who
pretend to be what they are not and mislead sitters, and who are antagonistic to
the human kingdom because the latter has all too frequently dealt
antagonistically with the animal kingdom.
153
The only way to receive trustworthy contact with
the spirit of a departed loved one is by prayer and silence, practised at the
same time every night. There may only be a sense of the other's presence, or
there may be a clear message imparted, possibly, in a dream. Patience is needed.
Moreover, this cannot be repeated more than a few times.
154
The death of the body does not mean the death of
the mind. Where there is deep love there can be interludes of mental communion
between the so-called dead and the living and there may be meetings from time to
time when each is conscious of the other. These meetings take place in a
reverie-like state. But some practice in meditative stilling of the mind is
necessary, as any emotional excitement would prevent this communion. Nature,
however, does not permit a continuous relation, only an intermittent one. For
spirits have their own higher destinies to work out.
155
In great bereavement, it is best not to seek
communication with the departed through mediums. One can never be sure that it
is genuine. Moreover, it is neither the right way nor the safe way.
156
I myself find it is hard to believe that
disembodied human entities are permitted by Nature, after so a long a period has
elapsed, to take an interest in the affairs of our world, much less interfere
with them or inspire embodied individuals. Even reincarnation would be more
logical than that.
157
If familiarity between the living and the dead
were as common as spiritualists claim, life would be very difficult for both the
living and the dead!
158
Have the disembodied nothing else to do than to
run about hither and thither with dubious messages and stale revelations?
159
Table-tipping, planchette-writing, and trance
mediumship may bring us into touch with friends long gone from our world; but,
on the other hand, they may also submit our existence to invading spirits of an
evil order who thrust themselves, unidentified, upon our brains and pretend to
be what they are not.
160
I hold with Spiritism that the ego, the
personality, does survive the death of the flesh body, but I do not hold with
Spiritism that this survival is a most desirable and marvellous thing.
Immortality is infinitely superior for it is the true deathlessness, but it can
only be had at the price of letting go the ego. Nor would I encourage anyone to
use the methods of Spiritism in its attempts at communicating with the "dead,"
for they are dubious and dangerous.
161
Those who feel pity for a person who kills
himself feel rightly. But when this feeling is not balanced by reason, it may
degenerate into sentimentality. For the suicide needs, like all other human
beings subject to the process of evolution, to develop the quality of strength
and to unfold the feeling of hope. His failure to do so leads to this sad
consequence. That some suicides occur from other causes does not displace the
truth of the general statement that most of them occur from weakness and fear.
162
The desire to kill himself may really be a desire
to terminate the ego's life, but the man is unaware of this. In such cases,
which are in a minority, the quest will be consciously adopted later.
163
It was not considered by several ancient peoples
nor by the Essenes of Judea and the Jain monks of India that suicide was a
criminal act if it were performed for valid reasons. These were: a hopelessly
crippled condition; an advanced age accompanied by physical helplessness; a
grave, chronic, or incurable disease.
164
It is understandable, when life becomes
unbearable, that a man may commit suicide. But that he should use violence when
doing so, is not.
165
A man commits suicide because of one of a variety
of causes: he may become completely panic-stricken; he may become utterly
hopeless; he may let go of all sense of proportion; or, if to any degree
mediumistic, he may be influenced suggestively by an evil spirit.
166
Is any man given more suffering by destiny than
he can endure? Theoretically he is not, but actually we do see cases of those
who have killed themselves or gone insane from such a cause. The manner of his
death, then, must be a part of his ill destiny.
167
It was not only the Jains in India who used this
form of voluntary departure from the physical body, but also the Essenes in
Palestine. When they felt themselves too old, they practised a slow starvation
by leaving the community and going into solitude by a river bank or mountain
retreat with only a handful of raisins for support. They would eat a few each
day until the supply ran out and, often, their life-current with it.
168
Several Indian mystics, such as Tukaram and Ram
Tirtha, have drowned themselves by walking into river or sea, and not always for
the common reason that they were too old or too infirm. But willingly starving
to death was regarded as a higher way of bringing one's life to an end. However,
all this has nothing to do with the barbarous murderous custom of suttee, which
is forced suicide.
169
The would-be suicide seeks personal oblivion, a
memory-less and mindless non-existence.
170
It is not useful to discuss here the ethics of
suicide, and the morality of mercy-killing. Those who have borne the crushing
misery of chronic disease, or suffered the worst mutilations of war are at least
entitled to their point of view. But what shall we say of the priest who urged
Hindu widows to immolate themselves by fire and thus attain divinity and
spiritual reward or, more recently, of Vietnamese monks who did the same for
what was mostly a political cause?
171
Suicide by starvation was regarded as
particularly meritorious by Hindus and Jains. It was not a sin, but the
contrary. It was usually preceded by fasting and prayer. It was usually caused
by old age, disease, incapacity, or the purposelessness of living. If caused by
a great sin it was a penance.
172
When suffering reaches its zenith or frustration
is drawn out too long, when the heart is resigned to hopelessness or the mind to
apathy, people often say that they do not wish to live any more and that they
await the coming of death. They think only of the body's death, however. This
will not solve their problem, for the same situation - under another guise -
will repeat itself in a later birth. The only real solution is to seek out the
inner reality of their longing for death. They want it because they believe it
will separate them from their problems and disappointments. But these are the
ego's burdens. Therefore the radical separation from them is achievable only
by separating permanently from the ego itself. Peace will then come - and come
forever.
173
The temptation to antedate the journey out of the
flesh is sometimes irresistible.
174
Is life worth living? Even if there is little
reason for satisfaction with one's existence, there is equally little reason for
bringing it to an unnatural end. Surely the brevity of life should settle the
matter anyway.
175
What the artist may learn from ecstasy, the
family householder may learn from tragedy, which brings him face to face with
the nature of our existence for the first time. Birth and death are entwined in
our lives. In both conditions we cross through the Source of our being.
176
There are the visible living people and the
invisible living ones. None are ever lost to existence or destroyed in
consciousness, but only their bodies.
177
An immortality which does not purify, exalt, and
transform his life, which does not give him the new, spiritual birth, will prove
as unsatisfactory to the disembodied man in the end as it is already to the
embodied thinker.
178
So materialistic has the religious understanding
of many men become, that they will only accept as the highest - if not the only
- proof of life after death, the appeal to their gross senses and not to their
fine intuition or rational intelligence. That is to say, the bodily form of a
dead person has to materialize in front of their own or someone else's eyes to
convince them that he has not perished after all.
179
This lesson, that a man is not his body, will be
learnt in modern times through his reasoning intelligence as it was learnt in
former times through his believing feelings.
180
Why did the Egyptians place their Heaven in the
unseen regions into which the dying sun vanishes after sunset?
181
The answers to questions concerning immortality
were given in the seventh and eighth chapters of The Wisdom of the
Overself. However, certain points are given here again:
(a) Every person maintains his or her individuality during and after the perishing of the body-thought.
(b) The inequalities and injustices, which trouble many, are all balanced sooner or later by the law of recompense (karma). Each person receives in return precisely what he or she gives out; thus there is justice in the world, despite appearances to the contrary.
(c) When others ridicule the idea of immortality, the aspirant should not be upset nor allow his own faith to be weakened; he must remember that these people are merely expressing their own opinions, not passing on knowledge. The fact that many persons are not too happy about the idea of physical annihilation - and fail to take into consideration the fact that the "I" endures - has, of course, coloured their personal tastes. Their opinions are, however, incompatible with truth.
(d) The superstition that a childless person cannot reincarnate is nonsense.
(e) There are two kinds of immortality (so long as the lower self dominates consciousness): first, the "endless" evolution of the ego, gradually developing through all its many manifestations; and, secondly, the true immortality of the everlasting, unchanging Real Self - or Overself - which forever underlies and sustains the former.
(f) My reference to not clinging to the ego simply means that the aspirant must learn the art of releasing what is transitory in himself and in his existence - that which can survive only temporarily. The Real Individuality - the sense and feeling of simply Being - can never perish, and is the true immortality. No one is asked to sacrifice all interest and appreciation in "things": one may continue to appreciate them - provided their transiency is understood and one does not deceive himself into overvaluing them. The prophets merely say that the eternal life cannot be found in such things.
182
We must find heaven this side of the grave; we
must understand that heaven and hell are deep inside the heart and not places to
which we go; and we must know that the true heart of man is deathless.
183
The personal man will survive death but he will
not be immortal. The "I" which outlives the fleshly body will itself one day be
outlived by the deeper "I" which man has yet to find.
184
If death is the price of dwelling in this
space-time world, then a spaceless and timeless world where there is no "here"
and no "there," no "then" and no "now," no change from one stage to another,
would also be an immortal one; and if death is the price of being associated
with a separate individuality, then an existence which mysteriously embraces the
whole world-system in unity must be imperishable.
185
The man who has studied these teachings does not
believe that death can bring him to an end even though it must bring his
body to an end. It is both a logical and biological truth for him that his inner
personality will survive, his mind will continue its existence.
186
It seems that Life can very well carry on without
any of us, but it does not seem that we could do the same with regard to Life
itself. It depends on whether anything or nothing awaits us in the after-play.
187
The life that is in us goes at death into the
life that is in the universe. It is as secure there as it was in us. It is not
lost. Thereafter it reappears in another form, another body.