The Great Mystery of Death, Part 4

Afterlife?

Do we continue to live after we die? I ask on behalf of all the living.

That I ask confirms our not knowing.

I hear two replies: beliefs and silence.

Why do we even ask this question? Is it born from an innate drive the living have to keep on living? 

If we do live on after we die, who among us lives on- only humans, other animals, plants, the stones? 

If, as some believe, only humans live on, do all or only some live on after they die?

If we live on, how? Where? 

Do we ever live again on this earth?

If what is living inherently desires to keep on living, isn't it natural for us to create stories about how we continue to live after we die? Isn't it natural to create beliefs about living on and reinforce them with divine authority?

Rather than beliefs, I accept the silence.

We do not know what happens after we die. We do not know. 

The answer to this question is hidden from us. It's a secret. It always has been. It is one of the great mysteries.

What happens after we die? We do know one thing.

We decompose.

But then there are also those intuitions, dreams of the dead, ghosts, NDEs and other allusive experiences that leave us wondering. 

The Great Mystery of Death, Part 3

Death-like Experiences

Sleep, fainting, hibernation, being knocked unconscious, coma, near death experiences, orgasm: These are death-like experiences.

Sleep. We lie down and are dead to the world for a while. We humans spend a third of our life in the death-like state of sleep. 

Why? What is the purpose of sleeping?

Many of the living dream when asleep. Why? What are dreams? What is their purpose?

Hibernation: Many of the living self-bury and sleep like dead for months each winter to rise again in the spring. Why? What is the purpose?

Fainting: Something or someone takes our breath (spirit) away and we fall like dead to the ground. For a few moments we're dead to the world. Why do we faint?

Being knocked unconscious, coma: A blow to the head of almost any animal will render it unconscious. The effect of some blows is short-lived. Other blows induce comas. Still others kill. What a mystery the death-like state of unconsciousness is. While we're unconscious the living keep vigil hoping- or not- for our resurrection. 

Near death experiences (NDE): Heart, breath, and brain waves flat-line on the monitor. We see ourselves below. Through the tunnel we go toward the bright light. We experience love. Suddenly we back but not like before. We're transformed. Real? Hallucination due to a lack of oxygen? We do not really know.

Orgasm, the little death: It's a type of unconsciousness, similar to fainting but more fleeting. Induced by intense pleasure, it takes our breath, our spirit, away. It's a death we live for, a death we return to and rise from again and again. If not inflicted by another, we'll inflict this little death on ourselves. 

Do you know how many orgasms are happening right now? Why orgasm? What a wonderful and mysterious little death it is.

Note how resurrection follows all of these death-like experiences. That's what makes them death-like rather than death.

Are all these death-like experiences rehearsals for the real thing? Do the resurrections that follow make you wonder? I wonder if after death itself...could it be...that we...? 

The Great Mystery of Death, Part 2

Death: The Crust of Earth

Former rocks, plants, and animals, including humans, make the crust of this global grave yard on which we live. It's a crust of death.

Death supports life. All of the dead feed all of the living.

Life supports death. All of the living feed the crust of death.

What does it mean to die? Is dying the act of giving life?

The living kill. We share in the violence of death. We force deposits into the crust of this global grave yard.

Why? Why do we kill each other? Why all the death? Is it to feed life?

The Great Mystery of Death, Part 1

We expire, spirit-out. We die. We all die.   

Death is omni-present. It's all around. It's within. Cells of our body are dying right now. We're all in the process of dying.

Dying is happening right now. Do you know how many died as you read this?

From the moment we're conceived we begin our journey toward death. Any moment could be our arrival time.

Why? Why do we die rather than keep on living? 

Why does our arrival time remain hidden while we live?

The Great Mystery of Life

Why are we alive rather than not? Is this not the biggest question of all?

Does life have a purpose? If so, what is it? Is it the same for all living beings?

What does it mean to be alive? If something changes, is it alive? Is there anything that doesn't change? Is everything alive?

Did life have a beginning? If so, when? Where? How? 

Are some lives more valuable than others? If so, which ones? How do we decide?

Why is sex such a huge part of life?

Why does life feed on death? 

What determines how long we live?

These are just a few of the questions we can ask about the great mystery of life in which we participate.

Some borrow answers from others- parents, religious authorities, spirituality celebrities, philosophers. 

Others presume they're wise enough to make up their own answers. 

Either way their discomfort with not having an answer is numbed. 

I prefer the discomfort of not having an answer. I call it wonder. 

For me the point of the questions is not to answer them but to let them inspire in me a profound sense of wonder. 

Life, Death, Sex: The Three Great Mysteries

The word "mystery" comes from an ancient Greek word that meant "secret, hidden". It's related to the word "mute" which means silent.

We humans  are limited in our ability to know and understand what we experience as we live. As a result, we feel that much about life is secret. Much about life is hidden from us. 

Things hidden attract us. They feed our curiosity and compel us to ask questions. We ask about life. The answer is silence. Nature is mute about so many things. The gift nature offers us wrapped in muteness is wonder.

So, we live with our questions unanswered. We live with secrets in the presence of a nature that is mute about most of our questions, especially our big ones: 

Why are we alive? 

Why does anything exist rather than nothing? 

Why do the living die rather than keep living? Why do we stop existing? 

Why is sex so intimate with both life and death? 

Why are the living driven to unite in sex for pleasure, pain and reproduction? 

Why sex?

These are the three great mysteries: life, death and sex.

My next three blog posts ask the unanswered questions about these great mysteries that give us the gift of wonder, if we accept it. 

Ah, No Place Like Home

Nature is not something out there I go spend time in. I'm as much a part of nature as everything else. 

It's all nature and nothing but nature as far as I can see. There is nothing above or beyond, nothing supernatural. Even goddesses and gods are part of nature.

Who sold me the lie that I live apart from the rest of nature? Who sold me the lie that my true home is somewhere else or that I can go to a better (or worse) place after I die?

Why did I believe them? Why do others still believe them? 

There is no other place for me to be than here. I'm from here. I live here. I love here. This is my home. 

Home sweet home. Ah, yes, there is no place like home.