Dying Is Not So Bad

 

Dying Is Not So Bad

The term dying, here, refers to the death of the body, because souls, being offspring of God, cannot die. There is a saying: “Two things in life are certain: death and taxes”. It is intended to be a joke, because taxes are by no means certain, and the idea that death is a part of life is pure irony. However, the death of the body is something that each of us has to face because of its inevitability. It evokes fear, which we attempt to suppress by ignoring it. In this post we want to do what we can to alleviate that fear.

First, let's consider the view of the materialist, who rejects the idea that there is any life other than that of a body. I have met people who consider themselves Christians, but they are materialists, because they believe that, although there is such a thing as a spirit, and even that in some sense they may have some existence as a spirit, nonetheless that spirit requires a body for its existence. Such a person faces the death of the body as truly the end, but he will find that he is wrong because, as mentioned above, his soul cannot die. When he finally relinquishes his body, he will be just as cognizant as ever.

In the first place, it seems strange that Christians tend to make such a big deal about the death of the body, because Jesus often said or implied that life continued after death.

Now, let's see how the concept of reincarnation enters into this discussion of death. If the usual concept of reincarnation is accepted, the end of one life is not very significant because it will be succeeded by another, just as this life is the successor of the previous one – for thousands of generations. When I was introduced to the theory of reincarnation my initial reaction was that the theory wasn't useful because if I didn't remember past lifetimes then my life wasn't a continuum, and therefore those lives might as well have been the lives of different people. Now I realize that I was looking at the situation backwards. It is not the events of past lifetimes that I need to retain, but any change for the better or worse in my soul that stemmed from those events. Those are the only things that could give that long, long lifetime any meaning. It is the life of my spirit (my true life) that is eternal.

From the standpoint of eternity, a single lifetime is barely a hiccup, or as Jonathan Goldsmith phrased it, “a parenthesis in eternity”. This realization puts an entirely different perspective on the death of a body. But it also means that if no change in the spirit has been effected then the lifetime has been wasted.

Yes, it is heartbreaking but nonetheless true: thousands of lifetimes of billions of eternal souls are wasted as a meaningless wandering in an artificial world. Here, we see, once more, the importance of Socrates's admonition, “The unexamined life is not worth living”. When we do pause to examine our lives, we immediately come upon the all-important existentialist's question: “What is the meaning of this life?”. Just confronting this question may be sufficient to open one's eyes to the possibility that his true nature is spirit, which cannot die; and thereby alleviate to some extent his fear of death.

Now, let's give some thought to the millions of Christians who have fallen prey to the denominational doctrine that death brings a “burning in hell” fate as judgment for sins committed. That kind of judgment does not exist, because the sins were not recognized by God. That wonderful truth is not recognized by many, but it has been discussed at length in a post under the Mysticism label, entitled “The Mystery of Sin”, which cites many biblical references to the fact that God treats the righteous and the sinner alike. That may seem unfair in the thinking of this world, but the fact is that God cannot recognize evil because it is not in his nature. He only knows love, joy, peace, beauty, and happiness, and these are the things that are meaningful in His world. If he recognized anything lower than these He would assign power to it, but He can't do that.

Anyone who has led a selfish, grasping, even brutal life may undergo a period of confusion, regret, and difficult change; but he definitely will not “burn in Hell”.

So, what will happen? For the great majority of us it will be a relief to get rid of that body that was wearing out, along with all things that age, die, and decay. Even the earth, the rocks, and the metals erode, rust, corrode, and turn to dust. And it is the awareness of that inevitable fate that creates, at least on a subconscious level, a fear that sustains the liar's world. What we call death releases us from that fear, because we enter a world that is free of death. Here, we may just wait until we choose to enter the liar's world again, and lead another meaningless lifetime.

But, hopefully, we will realize that this world of spirit is the true world that reflects the awareness of spiritual growth or decline, and so gives a meaning to life . If it so happens that, at some point in this life of the spirit or life in the body, we choose to put our life in the hands of the Holy Spirit to bring the blessings of God into this world, then we are in a position to access all of our God-given powers. What are these powers? That is the subject of the following post.

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