There are those who believe that an eternal self
continues to exist after the body disintegrates.
We could call this belief a kind of “externalism.
Others believe that after death there is nothing.
This is a kind of “nihilism.”
We need to avoid both these extremes.
The insight of impermanence and interbeing tells us
there cannot be an eternal, separate self,
and the first law of thermodynamics —
the law of conservation of energy — tells us that
nothing can be created or destroyed;
it can only be transformed.
So it’s not scientific to believe that
after our body decomposes we become nothing.
While we are alive, our life is energy,
and after death, we continue to be energy.
That energy is continually changing and transforming.
It can never be lost.
We cannot assert that after death there is nothing.
Something can never become nothing.
—————————————————-
This is a fascinating subject that I’ve contemplated many times
over the many years that constantly evolved with my
philosophy in this matter.
What I consistently come back to is…
Ineffable.
Any way one looks at this topic,
there is no basis of understanding or conceptualizing
that can give any ‘yet to be Enlightened’ beings
a clear unwavering understanding… and certainly not a ‘knowing‘.
There must be some sort of experiential knowledge involved.
Even once one does become ‘Enlightened’…
That Enlightened being will still not find the words
that can effectively answer such questions for an un-Enlightened being.
I hope this example is not to ‘ineffable’ for it to be a useful example,
but:
One can intellectually understand what the Buddha means by
“Impermance”.
Like I have read about, studied and felt I really, really understood…
“Impermance”.
In fact,
If I took a written test anytime in the last 10 years…
I’d pass that question,
However,
I recently had a series of dreams,
dreams that were not all that different from most dreams I’ve had…
But the difference was,
When I awoke from the very last dream that night,
I awoke to a profound understanding of…
“Impermance”.
This “Insight” I experienced seemed to be
right in line with what the teachers describe what happens
as a result of repeated time in the higher meditative states…
These insights can happen after such a meditation of course,
But they can also happen in random times during one’s normal day…
Like in the reverie of a daydream or even in nighttime dreams.
The first recallable dream that night included a familiar pattern.
During my longest careers, I did electronic trouble shooting for aerospace,
then the Hollywood recording music studios and also
the post-production movie studios.
My job was to fix broken things.
In this line of work,
there is a lot of pressure to keep it working in the first place,
Then,
Fix it fast when it breaks.
Note:
“Everything Breaks”.
So,
I always had heaps of work.
Before something in a working studio broke…
I had what felt like…”leisure time”.
But when something broke,
All mental facilities were on line to find a fast solution.
The sooner I found this solution,
The sooner the expensive studio operations could continue…
And,
I get to go back to my “leisure time”.
And so it was typically in my dreams.
This ‘get ‘er dun’ aspect of my career
typically enters my dream scenario and my dream character
is locked in to finding a solution for some kind of issue…
Often it was working on studio gear and
the industry standard 2” reel to reel tape recorders
that were the standard ‘back in the day’.
But this time,
Somehow it became obvious that all this was…
“Impermeant”.
And instead of continuing to beat my head against the problem…
I just surrendered and…’Let it be’.
Then this other dream character that perhaps represented the
astonishing expense those high-profile studios face each moment…
like a boss, or bosses boss… came in to make sure I wasn’t just
“letting it be” …
This person was represented by what seemed like an animated mannequin
with superhuman strength and even a medical scalpel pointed at my eyes
to intimidate me.
It was as if the dream was phasing into a ‘lucid’ factor…
or perhaps it was the effects of an ‘Insight’
triggered by my dedication to my deepening meditation practice…
But, Again,
I saw the ‘Impermance’ of the situation, and peacefully glided away from knife
held by the monstrously powerful mannequin man sudo studio boss.
I meandered outside.
The neighbor hood was a bit creepy…
Although this did not apparently affect my ‘well-being’ (Equanimity?)
I was moved to just… keep moving on.
The creepiness continued to intensify, so,
I soon decided to just take a big leap into the sky
and fly around until I found some better place to just…
”Be”.
The next dream,
Was a non-sequitur of the last but…
The theme of ‘Impermance’ was the underlining … theme.
The 3rd dream again was another non-sequitur dream
compared to the last two
but,
It involved other aspects of my life…
Namely boats.
I’ve spent a lot of time on boats and sailed over 35,000 miles over the years.
Currently my latest boat is on the market to sell…
That right there speaks of ‘Impermance’.
That dream went on with a series of pleasant situations,
kind of like how sailing in paradise is…
Sailing toward the endless horizons to new and exciting adventures…
But,
The just as one ‘out of this world’ amazing sailing adventure ends…
and ya think, how could it get any better?
… then another one equal to or greater happens…
Somehow the lessons on ‘Impermance’ for me was not like
a Tibetan Rinpoche would sit in a crude grave yard or
“Dark knight of the soul’’…
But more like,
‘When one door is closed… another is open’.
Just like when one is in the middle of a deep meditative state…
There is no thinking…
Contemplation of that experience must wait until the mind
comes ‘back online’ so to speak.
The same with this series of dreams the other day.
So when anything arises… good, bad, challenging or contently comfy…
The ‘Impermanence’ of it should not affect your well-being.
Instead,
Look forward to the new adventures lying ahead,
just beyond the bend of your perception.
~
Back to the quote by Thich… (BTW… his friends called him ‘Thay’)
There are perhaps two ways to perceive who it is we ‘appear’ to be…
One of course is the physical body.
The other is
The contemplation and perspective of whatever it is about ‘us’
that was never born, will never die and is
unaffected by the chaos and challenges of life…
In which many ‘non-dual’ traditions describe as:
“I am”
Our ‘True Being or True ‘Self’,
‘Pure consciousness’…
In all these non-dual Spiritual traditions,
the contemplation of our ‘True Self’
is the fundamental basis to achieve…
”Self-Realization”… Awakening, or Enlightenment.
This is the main focus along ‘the Path’.
But just like the Sanskrit term “Neti-Neti”,
Not this…Not that…
It’s important to take into consideration of the aspects that we’ll need to ‘negate’
in order to get closer to the ‘realization’ of the
Ultimate unadvisable True nature of our Being.
So,
The body is not an insignificant part of ‘us’ that can easily be negated.
As Thay pointed out,
our bodes are energy, and energy can’t be lost…
Only re-arranged and transformed.
Our bodies have been transcending and including since the latest ‘Big Bang’…
That’s pretty… profound…
Yet,
There is something even more compelling to contemplate…
And that’s our ‘True Self’…
The goal of every non-dual tradition.
That all said:
All of this “Timeless Wonder of it all”… will remain…
“Ineffable”.
No one alive now,
experiencing the prana energy flow that gives life to this body
can have any concept of how all these interconnected body parts
that are made up from the beginnings of the universe
and evolved to this state of… arrangement…
Will feel like, or be like once they are ‘transformed’ into
the molecules and elements, components that will
constitute the compost our bodies will become.
Nor…
Can anyone really know,
How it will feel like or be like when our ‘True Self’ transcends this body.
In this plain of existence,
there is nothing to compare, conceptualize or relate to
how any perspective of what comes next can really be like.
But if one still remains inquisitively inspired…
And has the ‘Right Effort’, with a profound volition
to understand as much as possible about
Who “we” are,
What is “our” connection to the ‘timeless wonder of it all’…
and… beyond.
Then,
Abiding in the highest states of human consciousness long enough
to unwaveringly understand by the experiential Wisdoms
from deep contemplations of the Insights gained in such meditations…
then,
From this Enlightened perspective,
You will then have about as close to the answer humanly possible…
And even then,
Words to clearly inform others that are not so…Enlightened
will not be sufficient to bestow those Wisdoms onto others.
To consider what all non-dual traditions say our ‘True Self’ or nature is…
Pure Awareness…
This ‘Awareness’ does not seem to change as ‘we’ transcend this life to …
beyond.
I’ve heard this example told from a few different traditions,
in which an Enlightened Master is teetering on the threshold of bardo…
he manages to inform his disciples:
“Nothing Changes”.
Namaste
