To part 3
These texts were used as podcasts about death (in German), lasting for less than an hour altogether. That’s not nearly enough for this topic and yet it is more than enough time to let yourself be touched by it. And that is what we wanted, to create a possibility of being touched and led to this threshold, to this gate, of opening up to its mystery.
At any time, in the here and now, we can experience a mysterious process of change: a daily dying and being born anew.
Or, to paraphrase a quote from Angelus Silesius, we could say:
“He who dies before he dies, will not die when he dies.”
This “dying before we die” is something we can learn. It is the characteristic of a liberating spiritual path. We know this “emerging, flourishing and passing away” of all things on earth, which happens again and again. It is a cycle, to be sure – and yet it is also a wheel of life, a wonderful great whole in which humans have their place. And in which they are given the opportunity to grow not only outwardly but, above all, in their inner being.
What is more, the path which liberates us from this cycle is wonderful. We can regard the wheel of life from a meta-perspective because, inherent in our being, there is a spiritual principle whose origin is beyond time. In the course of our life and through many experiences, our consciousness grows and we have the opportunity to come into contact with this eternal principle.
This gives death a new meaning and dimension. The realization and the certainty grow in us that there is a continuity of being which reaches far beyond what we, here, experience as life.
The poet Novalis tells us: “Where are we going? Forever home.” Thus reassured I can continue on my path, full of joy and feeling free. My life continually leads me across thresholds and finally we cross the very last one. I can take this last step with complete confidence, knowing that we are safe and protected as part of the eternal stream of life and consciousness.
The leaves are falling, falling as from afar,
as though in the heavens were withering distant gardens;
they’re falling with a denying attitude.
And in the nights the heavy earth falls
from all the stars into solitude.
We’re all falling. This hand is falling.
And see the others: no one withstands
And yet there is One who holds this falling
with infinite gentleness in his hands.
Rainer Maria Rilke
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