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Despite the recent popularity of books detailing
near-death experiences and the host of channeled
entities who assure their listeners that life continues
beyond the Big Divide, death is not something that most
of us look forward to. And with good reason:
testimonials aside, there is no way of knowing with
certainty what awaits us when our time has come. Death
is the ultimate Big Unknown, and most of our theories
and beliefs regarding it amount to whistling in the
dark.
The ruling cosmology of the modern era assumes that
death is life's enemy - that we get one shot at life and
when it ends, the party's over. This assumption fuels
much of the anxiety of Western culture and underlies
everything from free-floating existential despair to a
preoccupation with antioxidants and life extension.
To make matters worse, AIDS has come along, causing
friends and loved ones to waste away before our eyes.
That some of the stricken rage against their fate is no
surprise, but I've been most struck by the dignity of
those who calmly look death in the eye and beckon to the
rest of us to share their gaze. It is one of life's
ironies (or is it death's?) that two of the most
luminously transparent and saintly people I've ever had
the privilege to know were a drag queen and a Satanist
in the drawn-out final stages of AIDS. Death the leveler
serves double time as a saintmaker as well.
In any case, if we can extract ourselves from the
hurly-burly of the race against the clock long enough to
survey the spiritual landscape, an interesting fact
emerges. Nearly every religion, whether mono- or
polytheistic, whether Eastern or Western, affirms the
continuity of life after death. Of course the cynic will
say that this is merely because every religion is
engaged in selling pie in the sky and priests of every
stripe know a good scam when they see one. However, I
think this is too easy an answer.
True, reality is flexible enough to provide most
every believer with evidence in support of his own
beliefs, but the sheer redundancy of multiple pointers
towards an afterlife should lead us to suspect that
there may be some truth here.
But which truth? A succession of earthly lives? A
progression through ever more rarefied dimensions? A
cannon shot towards heaven or hell? Or perhaps the
chummy continuity of ongoing family relations between
the Seen and the Unseen?
The Sufis speak of dying before you die, an
initially mysterious dictum that has at least two
meanings. The first is a recipe for mystical attainment:
"die" to the things of this world (that is, become
nonattached) before death does the detaching for you!
According to tradition, this discipline elevates the
mystic's consciousness while living and assists his
salvation after death.
The second meaning, however, is less apparent. It
refers to one of the fruits of mystical attainment: the
capacity to experience the continuity of consciousness
beyond death. If one has experienced this "dying before
you die," which has been likened to "the drop joining
the ocean," death is no longer an unknown or a source of
dread. One has participated in the awareness that
extends into the unseen and needs no scientific proof to
confirm that life offers a wider spectrum of being than
is generally assumed. The mystic who has truly undergone
this "death," without becoming mired in either his own
delusions or the subtle realms, becomes truly alive.
So far, so good. But there is another common
element among the teachings of various religions
regarding death. This is the concept of a day of
judgment (a la Christianity and Islam), or the weighing
of the soul (as in ancient Egyptian religion), or a
karmic reckoning (as posited in Hindu and Buddhist
teachings). Even if death doesn't mean the end of life
per se, it seems to represent a shift in our existence
that is shaped by our deeds and frame of mind in this
present life.
This is perhaps the real source of our wariness of
death, for who doesn't suspect, deep down, that judged
by objective standards of moral conduct, we will all
come up short? The specter of an eternity of torment in
hell can be profoundly discouraging, while the promise
of a ticket to heaven may seem about as likely as
winning the state lottery. Here too, esoteric teachings
offer insights. The soul upon death is said to commence
a journey through veils (or bardos or worlds) which
prove beguiling in direct proportion to our earthly
fixations. Thus the value of prayers for the dead, and
the promise of liberation for those who maintain their
connectedness with the Absolute.
All of which sounds rather rarified to most of us
and still leaves us wondering as to what attitude to
take towards our own impending death. Gleeful
anticipation seems rather optimistic, yet morbid dread
seems self-defeating. My own solution may be naive, but
it is the best I have to offer at this point. And that
is, unremarkably enough, simply do the best you can and
leave the outcome to God's mercy. A life of good deeds
that are performed with the intention of eternal
felicity may rank no higher in the final estimate than a
life of well-meaning mistakes that are sincerely
undertaken with no grand goal in mind. I am of the
school that assumes, perhaps heretically, that everyone
is redeemed in the end - even Satan.
Some of the greatest mystics have taught this and
I've come upon no reason to dispute their findings. But
ultimately it is an open question. As far as our
personal journey goes, the salient point to keep in
mind may be the sobering fact that death can come
unbidden at any moment. As such it remains a spur, not
unlike a high-school "pop quiz," to keep our wits about
us and maintain a link with the spiritual life. If death
is not the final chapter, then it may just be one stage
of a work in progress, and deserves better consideration
than a mere fait accompli. We dedicate this issue to
that possibility.
(c) copyright 1996 by Jay Kinney
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