Death as a Journey

It is no secret that our world is built upon the foundation of impermanence. All things come to an end; every living being must meet with fate. This is the cycle of energy flow in the universe, because energy can not hold form for long. However, man is sentient, and places much value upon his inevitable fate. He lives his life according to this impermanence, always fearing his ultimate reality. Man is regarded as sentient, separate, and even special. What we often fail to realize is that we are made of no different an energy than that which is the underlying force of all things. Death is a return to the source, the great sacrifice that is the consequence of living. Much fear and anxiety exists in the world today because man is always running from his fate. Death is a primal fear, the one that drives the carriage, and man seeks to reverse this relationship through the study of science and technology. He becomes ever more desperate as he realizes that death is beyond his control, and there can be no escaping it.

The concept of immortality perhaps spurred from the myths of the ancient world, and from the old religions. However, the passage of time tends to corrupt their meaning, and as these tales are passed through the generations, their original meanings and intentions become obscured or irrevocably lost. It is my belief that the ancients meant something very different when they wrote of immortality, and that their understanding of this world, though quite simple, was far more genuine than that of the modern sciences. It seems that they saw the nature of life and the reality of perception, and their fundamental beliefs back this up. The various tribes of the ancient world often harbored at their core a belief in the unity of things, evident in their understanding what is often called "the circle of life." They knew that our earth is one of interdependency, that every stage of life relies on all of the others, and our world in turn needs us just as much as we need it. In this view, death is only another step in the process.

Traditionally, when a living being dies, it begins to decompose, which the main source of sustenance for lower life forms. The decomposed being then returns to the soil, where plants may grow and feed off of its nutrients. Then, of course, insects, birds, and other herbivores feed off of the plants, and so on so forth. From a cosmic perspective, this is the flow of energy through the life force that is earth. If one contemplates the soul as the energy or fabric that we are composed of, we see that the soul is immortal indeed. Confusion arises only when we think of ourselves as separate individuals, as this kind of thinking causes us to hold tight to our identities. All that is required to live freely as nature intended is to release this notion, and to accept our fate. When there is an acceptance of death, all fear and anxiety begins to fade, and we can see it for the illusion that it really is. This is perhaps what ancient man meant when he wrote of immortality, because in a time separate from science and belief systems, these natural laws were plainly apparent. We must realize that man is not intended to live forever. This life is just another stage in the broader cycle - if it stopped here, then the balance would certainly be broken and our earth would  return to chaos. Without death, there could be no life.

There can be no thing more liberating than living your own death. A man who is killed is not allowed the privilege of choosing when, where, and how his death comes about, but a man who knows death while he is still living is eternally at peace. Cast aside ego, self identity, individuality, prejudice, and the deeply ingrained notion that all things are separate, and you shall find the infinitely sacred harmony that nature intended from the start. This is true divinity, and there can be nothing more honorable than giving the self away for a higher purpose. There is nothing more to be gained, though man will strive for that nothing anyway. Know that in loss there is purpose, in sacrifice there is dignity. Only then can you be free.