What happens to a person when he dies? Although I was not in the next world, the many testimonies given by spiritual traditions and people who were in a state close to death convinced me that some part of us will survive the death of the physical body. However, what exactly will remain of us is a mystery. A Buddhist mentor from Laos answered the question of what will remain after death in the following way: "Truth will remain." When the disciples of the dying Ramana Maharshi begged him not to leave them, he replied: "Where can I go?" The great Tibetan teacher, Buddhist mentor Kalu Rinpoche, once said:
We live in illusion, amid the appearance of things. But there is reality, and reality is us. Realizing this, you will see that you are nothing, and being is nothing, and you are everything. Apart from this, there is nothing.
Although these statements, uttered from the level of Absolute Consciousness, seem to be undeniable, we still ask ourselves: "Will I personally exist after death?" The answer to this question depends on what we consider ourselves to be. If we are proponents of materialistic views and believe that we consist only of body and ego, then the answer, of course, will be negative. But if our consciousness expands to the level of the soul and Atman, we will realize that the physical organism is simply a shell, a temporary apartment.
Realizing that I am the soul, I realized that although the body and personality will die, there is no doubt that something will survive death.
Anyone who has visited the Indian subcontinent has seen that despite India's modernization, its culture still encourages people to identify with the soul. Indians see life not as a complete book, but as one of its chapters. Therefore, they do not have such a fear of death as Westerners. When a Hindu dies, he is wrapped in a shroud, put on a stretcher and carried down the street to the cremation site, chanting: "Satya hey, Satya ha - God is truth." The body is not put in a box and everyone can see it. Finally, the body is burned on the bank of the river in the presence of relatives. During this ceremony, the eldest son breaks the dead father's skull with a stick.
Many Indians die at home, surrounded by their families. Therefore, the majority of the inhabitants of India from childhood have the opportunity to observe dying, or, as they say, the "abandonment of the body", which the soul no longer needs. The more conscious a person is, the more consciousness is in his death and in what will follow. Great saints who have achieved Pure Consciousness can leave the body absolutely calmly, realizing that, by and large, nothing special is happening. One of these saints, Anandamayi Ma, when answering the question "Who are you?", Demonstrated what existence on the spiritual level of consciousness can be like:
Father, what can I say? My consciousness has never connected itself with this mortal body. Before, Father, I came to earth, I was the same. Having reached the age of majority, I remained the same. When my parents gave this body in marriage, I did not change. And now, Father, now I am before You - the same. And further, although in the fields of eternity a whirlwind of change will circle around me, I will be the same.
Being in India, you are imbued with its spirit. Surrounded by hundreds of millions of people who have a broad prospect of extending the life of the soul after the death of the physical body, I felt how my faith in this grew stronger.
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Very few people living today can, being at the level of spiritual consciousness, declare the immortality of the soul first-hand. But these few demonstrate to us that such a potential is inherent in everyone - in principle, each person can identify with that part of himself that is transcendental to the body, mind and even soul, and can take refuge in the Nameless One, which is not subject to death.
Despite all the romance of the East, it should be noted that the great philosophers and thinkers of the West at some moments in their lives were also able to lift the veil of the mystery surrounding death. Here are some examples.
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Death is nothing but the movement of the soul from one place to another.
Plato
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See, brothers and sisters, this is not chaos and death. This is order, unity and expediency. This is eternal life. This is happiness.
Emerson
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What happens after death is so inexpressibly majestic that our senses and imaginations are completely insufficient to imagine these events.
Jung (after a heart attack in 1944)
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As you are sure that you see me now, I am sure that I have lived a thousand times before, and I hope that I will return a thousand more times.
Goethe
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In addition, it seems to me that being born once is no less amazing than twice.
Voltaire
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The fate of a person after death is the central theme of all world religions, rooted (contrary to institutional taboos and fundamentalism) in the mystical vision of man. But it cannot be said that different religions come to the same conclusions. Each culture interprets the posthumous experience in accordance with the prevailing images, mythology and its own beliefs. As a metaphor for these cultural differences, here is the story of the blind and the elephant.
Having met with the elephant and feeling different parts of its body, the blind did not agree.
“An elephant is like a tree,” said the one who touched his leg.
“No, no, an elephant is such a hose,” said the second, feeling the trunk.
- No, no, it is incomparably more - like a wall! - objected touched side.
- What are you, the elephant reminded me of a rope! - said the blind man with confidence, touched the tail.
So they argued, although they touched the same elephant.
The same is true with any mystical experience, including the description of a posthumous state. Any attempt to describe what happens after death - whether it be the bardos of Tibetan texts, the palaces of Kabbalah, the heaven and hell of Christianity, the basis of being in Buddhism - point to the same thing: the area into which the soul continues to evolve enters after death. Mystical texts often compare attempts to describe metaphysical reality with a finger pointing to the moon. In this case, the finger is words and images used as symbols that are beyond our understanding.
Although it is impossible to accurately describe the posthumous experience in words, it is possible to agree that some form of life after death exists. The mind is not given to know what is outside of it, and death is the dividing line between these levels of reality.
By learning to go beyond the ego and perceive reality from the point of view of the soul, we can touch the mystery of existence after death.
While it might seem like it doesn't make sense to think about the incomprehensible, it is not. Rilke put it well:
"There are no words to describe how it is possible, while remaining alive, to embrace death, all death … gently hold it in your heart, without rejecting life."
Yet by allowing the mystery of death to affect our daily lives, we begin to look at things differently. We ask new questions, such as, “If death is not the end, how will my life after death be affected by my current lifestyle? How will this kind of perspective affect my expectations, fears, sorrows and consolations?"
The thought that everything ends with death can bring a kind of satisfaction - maybe nihilistic, but soothing for those people who like specific answers and who fear existence outside the body and mind more than non-being. And if there really are such things as karma and reincarnation, shouldn't we live more consciously now, realizing that our current actions will determine the subsequent birth? Or, on the eve of endless eons of polishing your character, perhaps, as often happens in the East, be complacent, postponing the achievement of goals for future lives?
If such questions do not affect our real life, they easily turn into armchair fun. Reincarnation is a good example. It is rare to find an adherent of mystical views who doubt her. But what does this give us, alive? If our program of conscious aging focuses on being aware of the present moment, what is the point in thinking about future existence or in exploring the details of past incarnations?
The answer is absolutely obvious. Thanks to the realization that our current actions have an impact not only on the world around us, but also on the consciousness of the soul (which continues to exist after death), the need for an early awakening and the maximum manifestation of wisdom in real life becomes more obvious.
It is widely believed that the state of consciousness of a person at the time of death determines the characteristics of his subsequent birth. Whether or not we believe in reincarnation, this concept can inspire us to be as peaceful, compassionate, and wise as possible as we approach the end of our journey. By doing this, we will not lose anything in any case: if the theory of reincarnation is correct and our new birth is determined by our current life, then we will deserve a good future, and if we do not reincarnate, then at least we will live and die with dignity. Moreover, it is important not to condemn yourself for the loss of concentration, courage and compassion and not to be afraid of mistakes made in the process of dying.
I have known several well-meaning people who have added to the burden of their suffering the fear that if they die in their present unenlightened state, they will end up in hell or incarnate in the lower levels of existence. Such thoughts and feelings are not entirely adequate and do not help us get through the most serious test. In the end, it is none other than the ego who fantasizes about future incarnations and stubbornly tries to do everything "right".
Although we are able to change our consciousness and thereby influence the nature of our death, our subsequent birth will not be determined by us. Reincarnation is carried out in accordance with the time of the soul, which is unimaginable for the ego. They say that when the Buddha was asked how long he has been reincarnating, he replied: “Imagine a mountain that a buffalo cannot go around in a day, and just as high. Once every 100 years, a bird flies over the top, holding a silk scarf in its beak, which touches the top of the mountain. My incarnations lasted as long as the bird would need to erase the mountain to the ground."
Although the Judeo-Christian culture continues to challenge the concept of reincarnation (references to reincarnation were removed from the Bible at the Ecumenical Councils held in Trident, Nicaea, and Constantinople), recently in the West, the idea of multiple births has begun to be perceived as quite plausible. Many people with whom I spoke told about the experience of supernatural communication with deceased loved ones. In due time, my atheistic family was visited by such an extraordinary event. My parents exchanged a red rose on every wedding anniversary as a testament of their love.
After the death of his mother, a large funeral service was held in the church, at which there were many relatives and condolent acquaintances. When the coffin, covered with a carpet of roses, was rolled down the aisle between the seats to the first row, on which sat the father (a very pragmatic lawyer) and the rest of his relatives, one flower fell at his father's feet. Leaving the room, the father bent down and picked up the rose. In the limousine, someone said that, apparently, the mother sent word from the other world, and everyone agreed - even the father. In this thrilling moment, my very down-to-earth family accepted this "miracle."
Of course, in the same place in the car the question arose: "How to keep the flower?" Immediately after the funeral, my father began making inquiries, making phone calls, and a couple of days later the rose placed in a container with ice was sent by plane to another city, where it was supposed to be preserved. She came back sealed in a glass bowl with some kind of liquid, and my father put her on the mantelpiece. Unfortunately, the conservation method proved to be imperfect, and over time, the liquid turned black. A couple of years later, my father got married again, the last message from my mother began to cause a feeling of uneasiness, and the ball ended up in the garage, where I found it and put it on my home altar - so that it reminds me of anitya (the mortal nature of physical life).
I believe that the soul does not die with the death of the physical body, and therefore I advise people grieving for lost loved ones to talk with the souls of the dead. This is comforting and, in my opinion, helps both the living and the deceased, who often do not understand where they are and do not know where and how to move on.
Because most of us live, firmly identified with our ego and body, then the first contact of a person with the soul can be death - as a result, he will have a feeling of loss. In traditions such as Tibetan Buddhism, special techniques have been developed that allow the soul to approach the next incarnation, passing through various posthumous states (bardos). We can help this process in our own way, keeping in our hearts the memory of the soul of a deceased person.
Ram Dass