My son, zmo and I spend some time these days, sharing our thoughts on life, death and happiness. (Cars, women and video games tend to monopolize a lot of the discussions on happiness for some reason. Not sure why.)


Today our mental wanderings rustled up a few pieces of the puzzle that hadn't occurred to me. I thought I would share them here.

I have always found it curious that the meaning of the death symbol, and in fact death itself is of tied up loose ends followed by new beginnings. Death would be a good symbol for the moment of graduation, perhaps a subconscious or conscious reason for the wearing of black.

Here we have the moment of death, but not as we are commonly taught to see it. Isn't this a joyous celebration? We are graduating and yet..this is death. It is the death of childhood, and the beginning of a new life as an adult.

On a more socio-political level, it is the death of society's days of investing in us alone, and the beginning of our indenture to society. So perhaps it is a day of mourning for our spirits. Still the factories await and the corporate machine stops for no man.

This symbol of death is as representative of what happens after the end as it is of the end. This isn't commonly taught in most classes. Our Western notion of finality might stem from our need to bring things to a conclusion. Assimilation, domination or destruction is our motto.

In that spirit, I turned my thoughts again to the symbol of death..and this strange parting of ways between accepted and occult views of death.

This isn't a debate, and so I'll try to avoid my usual rambling approach to explaining every piece of this picture:

Briefly, it appears as though early on in the history of our society..we were taught to embrace that primitive fear of death, so that our "leaders", both religious and political could better maintain control. And for only that reason.

If your average citizen thought of life as a ride, rather than a race..and wasn't afraid of death..can you imagine what sort of daredevils would emerge?

Can you imagine? Our ultimate penalty in society...is death. Pain, punishment, incarceration...death. These are the tools of false power..and their tell-tale signs are everywhere to be seen. But what if we knew or believed that to die for a right belief or cause was to graduate from this life? To have passed the test and moved on to the next stage in this strange evolutionary journey we are each on..who would run from the guns then when it was time to stand up for another? Or ourselves?

And the tie in, between organized religion asking us to take what the state has for us without any vaseline. And also promising us the reward after death..if we're good..according to a new and ever-expanding array of criterion and circumstances. The whole tie in to death and religion and judgement and capricorn (aka Saturn ruled Father Time) and an overly controlling society.

Control. Is this the reason for the doom and gloom and fear view of death fed to us in a curriculum based on the mechanistic views of the material sciences? Is this why we are taught to think of life as little more than a series of chemical and eletrical interactions?

There is no death I don't think. I believe it's a hoop of fire.

It just seems like it might burn you when you're passing through.

We just do our best, and when the yellow bus comes at us and we're looking the wrong way..it's time for a new adventure.

daf

Good thoughts, Daf.

I agree that death is actually a continuous cycle in our lives.

Every new day is a new beginning. Yesterday is dead and gone.

Life consists of dying and rebirth. Just as the cycles of the seasons so are our lives. Just as the sun sets on one day it also rises on a new day. The grass, trees and flowers are reborn in the Spring and they all go through a process of dying in the Fall.

We age. We die to our youth. What was will be no more but we are reborn into a whole new series of experiences and adventures in our journies no matter the age.

It is my belief (which actually was taught in the religion that is so very misunderstood by many due to the need of some Christians who insist on using God and the religion itself to control others) that in God there is no loss - in God death itself is not a loss but a continuation of life albeit in another form and another realm. The journey continues on and on to infinity and beyond.

I think that even without the need of some people to use God and religion to control others, we would still fear death. I think the reason most of us fear death is simply due to the ego which fears any change at all. We fear death because it is the unknown. There is also the ego's attachment to things of this world that causes us to dread death. Then, on the upside, there is also those who we love a great deal in this life that we don't want to leave behind as we continue on in our journey. So love itself causes us to want to hang on to this life.

I think that our egos also cause us to fear and resist any changes within ourselves and the changes that occur normally throughout our lives. Some people fear and resist changes more than others. Depends on our faith and willingness to just let life unfold as it may.

I think the ego which itself resists being merged as one with the soul is the culprit behind our fear of death in all it's apparent and continuing aspects of our lives. Once we come to know that death is as natural a part of life as birth and all that transpires in our lives between the two, then death is not something we fear at all but just accept as a continuing process of our journey.

We were never created just for this world alone. If that were the case our souls would not be immortal.

Lower animals just accept the death process. It is natural to them. But even lower animals who are raised with humans and loved dearly by those humans will resist if the human does. I discovered this to be the case with my beloved kitty, Mirandee. She fought and held on in pain longer than most cats would have until one day I realized my selfishness in not wanting us to part was causing her more suffering. I had a talk with her. I told her it was okay to let go. The next day she did. She even ate the Whiskas that she had not been able to eat in a long time as if she wanted to taste it one more time. Had not Mirandee had that love bond with me and all of us, she would have done what cats and other animals normally do, gone off somewhere and laid down and let go of her life very easily and normally.

I will add that while I don't fear death in one sense, I do dread it ever drawing near at my age in life only due to my love for my family and friends I also hold dear. I don't want to ever be parted from my loved ones. But then again, I also believe I won't be ever be parted in spirit. It is still different than being with them all the time in everyday life. Even with this love I still believe and sense inwardly that where I am going in my new life I will be very happy. I also believe that love energy is all I am going to take with me into the next journey.

Love, Connie