The Sacredness of Life
An Unlikely Miracle
Death. We are surrounded by it. That may always be true, but the current condition on planet earth brings it to the front of our minds. Because we are culture-bearing story-telling animals we have a story about this.
Our egos don't want personal death to be possible. So we imagine it differently, more to our liking.
The existence of death, the myriad of ways it can occur, and the fact that if we avoid it while young we have the inevitable decline of old age to deal with have all made me question, and ultimately reject, a personal god. For such a god would have to be a sociopath to design the experience of life in this manner.
And yet--just observing the process of life must lead us to some great and awful sense of order. We, most of life, are created by the strange ritual of sex. Then we are born (or hatched) as tiny helpless things. And grow into our larger selves completely transformed.
That alone is wondrous enough. If, on some distant world with a different set of conditions a documentary about life on earth were produced, most of the beings there would think it to be science fiction.
And that is just one of the signs of order we can detect on our earth.
In truth there is no way to know what happens after death. The experiences of those who have flatlined and then returned are fascinating, but can be explained in more ways than one. As a critical thinker I reject the notion of continued existence just as we are but without a body to support mind and spirit. There could be a way that our essence melds into the universal essence with no trace left of our own personality. But that is not quite what our egos demand, is it? Or our attachments to others.
The only way to deal with these simple conditions is to accept the unknowing and live as well as possible. And by that I mean as kindly and clearly. When the end comes the material world will count for much less than the connectedness of our lives, whether we die in a flash during an accident or have years in bed to think about it. The holiness we seek is not "out there". It is right in front of us.
If this is something you have pondered please leave a comment.
I enjoy your posts. When I was around six years old my family was in a cabin on a mountain lake. (Lake Arrowhead). I got a very high fever. I remember when I woke up – my mother came over and asked me if I knew how long I’d been out. I did not know – she told me a day and a half. She handed me my brother’s Red Rider comic book. I was thrilled to have it – though I couldn’t really read all of the words – just some.
Anyway here’s the interesting part. When I was under this incredibly high fever I entered a gray void – fog like place. I was floating and started moving through the void going faster and faster. As I was doing this my body became smaller and smaller. I was losing my body. The best part was that I was in a complete state of bliss. I remember that in this dream state I was very disappointed when it ended. I did not want it to end.
When I was nineteen I read the Tibetan Book of the Dead and it stated that the before entering the new existence there would be a gray void like place. I was only six years old, so I didn’t have any preconceived ideas about all of this.
Maybe because of this experience I am not afraid of death.
Clearly, everything we love will perish in transformation. But not yet! Right now we are still here together! That certainty of impermanence makes the whole world holy in this moment! Miraculous!
Thank you, Annabel!