“Each night, when I go to sleep, I die. And the next morning, when I wake up, I am reborn.” Mahatma Gandhi
You’re going to die. It’s inescapable. This is a fact that we avoid in western culture. Death is side-lined and taboo to openly discuss because we do not understand it. How can we even try to comprehend this great unknown?
Our upbringing and conditioning from childhood is based primarily around the physical universe as the basis of reality. Our perception of the universe is captured through sensory organs that tell us that matter is primary due to a Newtonian philosophy that dictates the cosmos as varying vibratory frequencies of energy that we see, feel, hear, smell and taste. However, unbeknownst to the history books, Newton would have been to first to correct this as erroneous. His most prized work was achieved in the craft of alchemy and he was an initiate and adept of the closely guarded secrets of the mystery schools joining an alumni comprising some of the greatest minds in recorded history such as Plato, Socrates, Descartes, Bacon and more of the people that have shaped our world.
Our reality is mental. It is not material. If you want to research this, there are books ranging from the first recorded civilisations right up to contemporary thinkers and scientists. I suggest you start with the quantum world to gain a better understanding of how matter is a result of consciousness and not vice versa.
So if mind is the basis of the cosmos then how does this help us comprehend death?
The ancient pre-dynastic Egyptians existed in a society that was (arguably) one of the most advanced the world has ever seen. They had a deep understanding of the arts, sciences, geometry and mathematics. It would be a mistake to assume the ancients had the same state of consciousness as we do. Their consciousness was different and they approached life in a way only few understand today. They built structures across the globe that have lasted thousands of years and even today stand as the most accurate feats of engineering on the planet. Modern techniques simply cannot reproduce this. This culture put its best minds to work on the ‘problem’ of death for more than 3000 years. Their conclusion was that death does not exist as we know it. In fact, they did not even have a word for death as we understand it. They called it ‘westing’ to symbolise the sun setting in the west on a daily and repetitive cycle. This stems from a pre-diluvian philosophy called 'Hermetics'. They understood that the universe was cyclical and that there were no ends, only transference. So, if consciousness flows through different realities, where does it come from and where does it go?
My initial reaction to this philosophy was skeptical. I assumed that these were a backward people whose mythologies and obsessions with the stars stemmed from a lack of understanding of their universe. Ironically, the opposite is true; it was I who was being naïve.
So this culture (and most pre-monotheistic cultures) knew what we are only beginning to understand through modern scientific studies and examination of the basis of reality: the primary of the universe is consciousness. They understood that birth was not a beginning and death was not an end but these events were simply necessary occurrences for the universe to ascend to a more complete understanding of itself through introspection and three dimensional experiences.
The schism that the Enlightenment created between science and spirituality is closing but death is still very much regarded as a subject to be talked of only in hushed terms in Western culture. Once we learn to face our collective psychic shadow, we will remember what the shamans and medicine men have never forgotten: that we should not fear death. We will grieve the passing of loved ones but we will also see that life is not lost, but set, only to rise as the following dawn.