Our own death

In this article, we are going to explore death - our own 'death'. 

This is a topic that we tend to avoid. It is a topic that can make us uncomfortable, anxious, and even slightly depressed. Considering the fact that we wrongly identify as a physical body, as a person, it is completely understandable that the idea of death makes us uneasy.

See, we believe that we exist solely as this physical body, limited by name and form, time and space. The cessation of this physical body, would then imply the cessation of ourselves too, right?

Let's take a deeper look into the concept of death. Let's see who or what really dies.

Dropping the body

We have this fear of the physical body ceasing to exist. Even more subtle, we have the fear of our ideas, our concepts, our attachments, ceasing to exist. We are afraid that the idea we hold of ourselves, and ourselves in relation to the world, will cease to exist.

Now, let's consider deep sleep. In deep sleep, we experience no physical body, nor any 'I-thought'. There is no 'self' and 'others'. Yet, every night, we look forward to the peaceful experience of deep sleep. This does not make us afraid, does it? In fact, we are very happy to simply 'drop' this body and thoughts! 

From our own experience, we can confirm that deep sleep is a peaceful experience, where there is an absence of lack and an absence of suffering. 

Knowing that deep sleep is a peaceful experience, implies that we must be there to know the experience. How else can we say that we slept 'well'? We do not say that "the body slept well". The experience of peace is not for the body, but for us.

Let's consider this...

Birth and death

For a moment, let's drop ideas and beliefs and look at our own experience.

We know that we are aware, alive, knowing, conscious. This we know intuitively, we do not need a thought to confirm this, right? 

Even if the thought of "I am aware" arise - we are witnessing this thought, aren't we? We are here before the thought arises. We are here, witnessing the thought, and when the thought dissolves and there is silence, we are still here, isn't it? 

Let's check up, before we proceed...

See, even the thought of "I am born" and "I shall die" appear within us. We are the Witness to these thoughts. Birth and death imply time, or beginning and end. How can we be touched by time, when time only exists as another thought? How can we be born, if we are infinite? How can we die, if we were never born? See, we are free from birth and death, at this very present moment!

Always the same

The same I that is in deep sleep, is the same I that is in the dream state and the waking state. We are always the same I, with our without the appearance of the world. Here, we are not referring to the 'I-thought' but the True I.

The appearance of the world will change, as it does. The appearance of the physical body is changing, yet we stay the same, don't we? The same feeling and knowing of "I" we had when the body was a toddler, we are also having now, even though the physical body is completely different than that of the toddler.

See, it is only the 'I-thought' that we falsely believe ourselves to be, which can die, which can cease to exist.

We want to investigate this 'I-thought', see where it is arising from and where it dissolves into. Then, we want to investigate the Witness of the 'I-thought', or its Source. The "Witness" or the "Source" is merely another name for the Self.

When we stop paying attention to the 'I-thought' and start to acknowledge the True I, the 'I-thought' dies. Knowing this, we can 'die' while living. The death of the false I does not have to wait until we drop this body, or until we go to sleep. Dying while living, we can live in peace, in harmony, and in happiness, Here and Now.

We are always the same, we never change. The Real I is lasting Peace and Happiness.

Related articles on this blog:

The Pathless Path, Part 1 - 6 September, 2021
Thoughts and Experience - 28 July, 2021
We are already Free - 19 July, 2021