Our true nature, our inner essence, remains unaffected by change and death. The origin of all understanding is present in it.
Life is a sacred opportunity to evolve, to recognise and realise the truth. The moment of death contains the best opportunity for enlightenment. On the high value of end-of-life care.
You need your whole life to learn how to live, but what you may be even more astonished about is that it takes you your whole life to learn how to die.
Seneca
Fear
In spiritual science, life and death are a whole, whereby death introduces a new chapter for life. Death is, as it were, the mirror in which the whole meaning of life is reflected.
Despite these teachings, modern civilisation, especially Western civilisation, resembles a spiritual desert in large parts. The majority believe that this life is everything. This is why our natural finiteness is repressed and feared. Isn’t the fear of death and ignorance of an afterlife and the denial of the law that requires us to reap what we have sown also the fuel for the reckless destruction of the environment that threatens to destroy all our lives?
One of the main reasons why we are so afraid of death is that we ignore the truth of impermanence. We desperately want everything to go on as before. No matter how often the truth interferes, we prefer with desperate courage to maintain our illusion of desired permanence because we see this as guaranteeing our apparent security. And yet we act as if we are the last generation on this planet.
The whole universe – as contemporary science also tells us – is nothing but change, activity and process, a totality of “being in flux”. In the primordial ground of all things, in this matrix of all possibilities, fleeting forms suddenly flash into existence – into the “explicit, the “unfolded order”, as David Bohm calls it – and emerge from it again, back into the “implied, the folded-in order”. In this way, never-ending, ever-new realities are generated and pass away again.
It is the same with our thoughts, they come and they go. The past thought is gone, the future one has not yet emerged and even the present thought, as soon as we experience it, is already gone, passed. The only thing we really have is the here and now. There is only one law in the universe that never changes, and that is the law of change.
Finding meaning in our lives leads to acceptance of death
We are not condemned to go into death unprepared. Rather, we can use our lives to come to terms with death. We can start here and now to find meaning in our lives. We can change every moment and mature to carefully prepare for death and eternity with a peaceful mind and an open heart.
A mindful encounter with death can bring about a real awakening, a transformation of our entire approach to life. The many near-death experiences have shown us that a great change happens to those affected: The fear disappears, the belief in a spiritual dimension of existence is strengthened, the knowledge of the continuation of life after physical death becomes an inner certainty, and the interest in material things increasingly diminishes. These impressive experiences obviously have a transformative effect.
As humanity collectively struggles to awaken to a new, higher state of consciousness, could it not be that the many near-death experiences experienced and described in the Western world represent a hand of evolution to drive this transformation forward in millions of people over a period of several years? Life-threatening crises and serious illnesses can trigger particularly profound personal transformations.
Are life-threatening illnesses actually warnings to remind us that we have neglected deep areas of our being and the spiritual needs of our true self?
Impermanence is synonymous with pain for our natural personality, so we cling desperately to things even though they are constantly changing. We are afraid to let go, we are afraid to really live, because learning to live means learning to let go. We have to learn to deal with change through a greater understanding of its necessity and meaningfulness. Letting go is the only way to true freedom.
We are co-movers in our universe
Spiritual realisation makes us realise that we are in reciprocal relationships with everything and everyone else. Even our smallest and most insignificant thoughts, words and actions have real consequences in the entire universe. When we shed our physical body, our thoughts instantly become reality, as the density of material matter no longer exerts any inhibition.
It is difficult for the earthly mind to comprehend the realisation of quantum philosophy that in the act of interpreting the universe, we ourselves create “our” universe.
With continued contemplation and practice in letting go, we discover something within ourselves that we cannot name or conceptualise, something that lies behind all the changes and deaths of the world. Our true nature, our inner essence remains completely untouched by change and death. It is the source of all understanding. We increasingly understand that this life is a sacred opportunity to evolve, to recognise and realise the truth. When we recognise the nature of the mind, the layers of confusion fall away. We stop being deluded and become a true human being.
Our logical mind seems interested in the one truth, but it is the seed of delusion! Real meditation, coming to our inner centre, is the way to transcend all concepts of our egocentricity. The purpose of meditation is to awaken in us the heavenly nature of the spirit, which shows us what we really are: the unchanging, pure awareness that ultimately underlies life and death. In the silence and stillness of meditation, we gain insight into this deep inner nature that we lost sight of a very long time ago through the distraction and frantic busyness of our earthly minds; and now we return to it, the inner nature. Meditation means bringing the mind home, and this is achieved through mindfulness. Mindfulness through calmly staying in the here and now.
The realisation of our current state of being then stands clearly before our eyes: today’s human being perceives himself as a part of the whole that we call the universe, as a part limited in time and space.
The prison of separation consciousness
We experience ourselves, our thoughts and feelings, as separate from everything else – a kind of optical illusion of consciousness. This illusion is a kind of prison for us, which restricts us to our own preferences and to affection for a few people close to us. Our goal must be to free ourselves from this prison by expanding the horizon of our compassion until it encompasses all living beings and all of nature in all its beauty. On this path, we increasingly experience unity with everyone and everything in the universe.
In the mindful awareness of our lives, there are always moments in which our mind is much freer than usual, moments that contain much more energy than others, that are much more spiritually charged and harbour enormous potential. The most important of all these moments is the moment of death. It is at this moment that the body is left behind and we encounter the best opportunity for enlightenment.
Human life is unique because it holds a potential that we usually don’t even dare to realise. If we miss the opportunities for transformation that the present life holds for us, it can take an incredibly long time before we are presented with another chance. It is a great fortune to find the way clear to these high insights, and if we really take them to heart and try to realise them in action, it is a rare but light-filled emergence into the sacred matrix of life.
On our spiritual path, all our concepts of the world, of matter and even of ourselves, which we have built up over many incarnations, are clarified and finally dissolved, and a completely new field of perception, which can be called “heavenly”, opens up.
Often, however, we cling to our happiness and suffering because we believe them to be real and sow the seeds for our next incarnation with our unskilful and ignorant actions. Our actions bind us to the perpetual cycle of worldly existence. Therefore, how we live now is how our future will be.
The real and urgent reason of why we need to prepare wisely for death here and now is that we can transform our karmic future, avoid tragically sinking into delusion again and again, endlessly repeating the painful cycle of birth and death.
The wisdom of egolessness
Through our devotion to the indwelling spirit in constant mindfulness, we prepare the path to finally experience the wisdom of egolessness. The ego as we know it is a false identity assumed out of ignorance and fear. It is the absence of the true knowledge of our real self. The result is a fatal clinging to a pieced-together, makeshift self-image that is deceptive and must constantly change in order to keep the fiction of its existence alive. Many lifetimes of ignorance have led us to identify our whole being with a self of this kind.
The slowly growing memory of our true nature enables us to clearly distinguish between our real spiritual guidance and all the seductive voices of our ego; inner joy and trust grow and dissolve doubts. Only when our mind is empty is it ready for and open to wisdom. Spiritual growth takes time. The spiritual path is an ongoing path of learning and constant purification that requires patience. The purpose of our life on this earth is to achieve unity with our fundamental, enlightened nature. The task is to recognise our true nature and embody it.
We live in a time when not only a few people need to seriously recollect their spiritual task, but when a large part of humanity must embark on a search for wisdom if the world is to be saved from the threatening inner and outer dangers. In these times of violence and disintegration, a spiritual perspective is a necessity for the survival of us all. But there is an inexhaustible hope in the fact that the sources of universal wisdom are present in this world as living testimonies.
The gem of discernment
In order to find the pure source of wisdom, an assured power of discernment is required, since the forces of imitation and deception are also at work at the same time. The power of discernment develops in the surrender of the heart to the spiritual power within us.
Karmically determined, there are very individual paths that lead us to our spiritual home. Let us abandon all “spiritual tourism” and its many seductive offers and instead consistently follow our autonomous path, which we have recognised in our heart as the right path for us, in order to allow our inner truth to merge with the universal truth. If we follow our spiritual path with dedication and discipline, we will in truth realise all paths that ultimately seek to achieve the one goal of enlightenment.
So let us not waste our energies on this world of illusions, for that is a betrayal of our essence and the surrender of a wonderful opportunity to know and embody our enlightened nature. This is perhaps the most heartbreaking thing about human existence. You have to ask yourself: what have we learnt in life if we don’t know who we really are at the hour of our death? The Tibetan Book of the Dead states:
To act with a completely distracted mind, unmindful of the approach of death, entirely without meaning, and then to return home empty-handed, would be utter delusion. It is therefore necessary to recognise spiritual reality. Why not embark on the path of wisdom right now, at this very moment?
Our true spiritual nature is also our inner master. Since the beginning of our confusion, this inner master has worked for us without ceasing, has tried tirelessly to lead us back to the radiant expanse of our true being. Not for a second has this inner master given up on us, but has worked on our development with infinite compassion.
Surrender, the shortest path to liberation
We open the door to him through the pure devotion of our purified heart. Only through devotion can we recognise the truth. Devotion is the purest, quickest and easiest way to recognise the nature of our mind and the nature of everything.
Pure, simple dwelling in the pure presence of our spiritual nature also means that karma no longer has the slightest chance of accumulating. In this carefree self-forgetfulness, the karmic law of cause and effect cannot bind us in any way. Even by being prepared for the “phase transition” at our physical death, we can be helpful to others who are in the process of dying.
End-of-life care as a human service
People die as they have lived – as themselves. In order for understanding to be possible without reservations, we must meet the person concerned in the context of the specific background of their life, their character and their biography.
Accompanying the dying always means that we face our own death fearlessly and responsibly and discover in ourselves the first inkling of a compassion that is as boundless as we could never have imagined. A dying person must first and foremost feel love, free of any expectation, and must therefore be accepted unconditionally. A dying person longs to be touched. It helps to stroke them gently or simply hold their hand.
We easily forget that the dying person is about to lose everything: their world, their possessions, their loved ones, their profession, their body and their natural spirit. All the losses we have experienced and coped with in life are bundled into one overwhelming loss at this point. It is not surprising that rebellion and anger can arise.
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross was able to observe this very precisely when accompanying the dying and described these phases: It begins with the denial of the possible end, then the anger against the inevitable can build up, only to enter into the will to negotiate in order to gain a respite from fate. However, as the strength diminishes, confidence often plunges into depression until finally the maturity of acceptance can bring peace. The sequence varies and often not all phases are experienced.
It is important that we do not leave the dying person alone and that we try to fill the atmosphere around them with our focussed spiritual presence in order to give them the peace they need to let go and allow them to turn to their inner light in safety.
Forgiveness leads directly to liberation
In such a situation, the person concerned will also find the courage to express their feelings of guilt and apparent failings, and we can give them confidence that reconciliation and complete forgiveness is possible right up to the last moment of their life. We can give them the certainty that forgiveness is in the nature of God and that divine forgiveness has already been granted.
Real forgiveness is only possible from the impulse of our higher being. It is a conscious, liberating act of love from our true self. In doing so, we open ourselves to the one light of truth and leave behind all attachment to material life. This can transform karma, because the moment of death is a powerful opportunity to purify karma.
It is very helpful to create an atmosphere of calm, a light clarity in clear alignment with the pure spiritual field in the immediate environment of the dying person, because the last thoughts and feelings before death have an extremely powerful, determining effect on the immediate future.
The power of compassion
There is probably no greater act of compassion than helping a person to die in an appropriate good way.
It is compassion that prompts us to devote ourselves to the welfare of others, to take care of their suffering instead of just taking care of ourselves. Compassion, which goes hand in hand with the wisdom of egolessness, can effectively and completely eliminate the old attachment to a false ego, the cause of our endless wandering in impermanent nature. The power of pure compassion is limitless.
Increasingly we are realising that we can only truly help others on their path to spiritual awakening when we are ignited by the Christ spirit. Therefore, the great need we face daily is a great incentive to strive with determination for our own perfection, and the fervent desire to attain enlightenment for the benefit of all others grows.
We need compassion in every moment of our lives. But when would it be more urgently needed than at the time of death of ourselves or others? It is important for the dying person to know that they can hand themselves over into the hands of the pure light with faith, heart and mind, body and soul, so that they can rest in the Absolute Presence.
Death inevitably confronts us with the fact that the body is ultimately a temporal illusion. Inspired by this realisation, we are enabled to accept its transient nature. We will be able to calmly free ourselves from all attachment to our body and leave it behind voluntarily, even gratefully and joyfully. This realisation actually makes us capable of dying when we die. And so we awaken to the truth and attain freedom.
In the Tibetan Book of the Dead, we read the following words as a sign of acceptance for the moment of transition:
Now that I am leaving this body composed of flesh and blood, I will recognise it as a temporary illusion.
From the vantage point of this clear realisation, with the eyes of an eagle as it were, we can look down on a landscape in which the boundaries between life and death that we have imagined merge and dissolve.
May we reach out to the divine gift of mercy that shines towards us from the prayer of St Francis of Assisi:
As long as space exists and sentient beings suffer, may I too remain to dispel the sufferings of the world.
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace, let me bring love into hatred, forgiveness into guilt, unity into discord, truth into error, faith into doubt, hope into despair, light into darkness, joy into sadness.
Lord, let me strive more to comfort than to find comfort, to love than to find love.
In giving I receive, in forgetting myself I find myself, in forgiving I experience pardon, in dying I rise to eternal life.
Literature:
Rinpoche, Sogyal: Das Tibetische Buch von Leben und Sterben (The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying), Otto Wilhelm Barth Verlag, 1997
Kübler-Ross, Elisabeth: Interviews mit Sterbenden (Interviews with the Dying), Kreuz Verlag, 1971
