Death is a great opportunity because death is one way for the formless dimension to enter this life. The formless comes into this life exactly at the moment when form fades. But if they don’t embrace that and refuse to let the form fade, it’s a missed opportunity.
As the people around you die, you become increasingly aware of your own mortality. The body will dissolve. Many people in our civilization still deny death. They don’t want to think about it, they don’t want to pay attention to it.
It has tremendous potential for spiritual flourishing. Even in people who were completely identified with the form until the form began to fade. This is your last chance in this incarnation as your body begins to fade – or you become aware of this limited lifespan. This is your last chance to move beyond identification with form. This is true whether it is your own body or someone else’s.
Near death, there is always that grace that is hidden under the seemingly negative event. In our civilization, we see death as completely negative, as if it shouldn’t happen. Because they are in denial, people are so shocked when someone dies – as if it is not possible. We do not live with the familiarity of death, as some older cultures still do. There is no acquaintance of death. Everything is hidden, the body is hidden. In India, corpses are seen being carried through the streets and publicly burned. For Westerners, this is terrible.
As consciousness changes, I feel that more and more death will be an important part of the evolutionary process, the rise of consciousness on our planet.
The mold can dissolve at any age. Even if you are very young, you may be close to death. At any age, it is extremely helpful to learn about or become comfortable with the impermanence of the physical form.
I recommend everyone to visit the cemetery from time to time. If the cemetery is beautiful, it makes it even more pleasant. Some cemeteries are like a beautiful park, you can walk around and feel extremely peaceful. But even if it’s not beautiful, it’s just as useful spiritually if we walk around the cemetery and think about the fact of death. I still do, quite often, whenever I get the chance.
In Europe, in villages and so on, there is often a cemetery next to the church. I like to walk there. My favorite part is reading the names on the headstones. Sometimes, if the headstones are very old, you will see that the name is no longer there – it has been worn away by the weather.
Contemplating death and accepting the ephemeral nature of the human form opens up when you accept it. Don’t intellectualize it. Don’t draw any conclusions from it. Let’s just stick to the simple “essentiality” of the fact of the impermanence of the human form and accept it as it is without going any further. If it goes on, it gets into reassuring beliefs, which is also very nice. But what I’m driving at is something deeper than comforting beliefs—rather than jumping to some sort of conclusion, let’s stay with the fact of the impermanence of the human form and reflect on that fact.
By contemplating the impermanence of the human form, something very deep and peaceful opens up within you. That’s why I like going to cemeteries. When you accept impermanence, an inner opening emerges that is beyond form. What is untouched by death, the formless, comes when you fully accept the impermanence of all forms. That is why it is so deeply peaceful to contemplate death.
If someone close to you dies, then there is an additional dimension. There may be deep sadness in it. Form was also valuable, although what you loved in form was formless. And yet you weep for the fading form. There, too, one reaches the point of acceptance – especially if one already knows death, already knows that everything dies – then one can more easily accept it when it happens to a close person. There is still deep sadness, but then you can have both dimensions at the same time – the outer grave, the inner and the most essential is deeply calm. It comes out almost as if to say “there is no death”. This is peace.
An inspiring story
I have been interested in spiritual teachings all my life. I did yoga classes and meditation exercises. Ten years ago, my husband (who is now my ex-husband) started listening to Eckhart Tolle’s videos. At the time, I couldn’t really grasp the content, and I didn’t care.
Years later, in Africa, I saw a boy selling various books to drivers on the street. He showed me “A New Earth” and I knew I had to get it and read it. I got this book when I was going through a difficult life situation. I was away from home, I was having difficulties in my relationship with my new partner, and my working conditions were stressful.
I started reading and I was fascinated. I was enjoying every sentence and I was fully awake. From then on, I regularly reminded myself to be in the moment. I introduced “stops” in the flow of my thoughts on a voluntary basis. During long meetings, I observed the spaces between words, which allowed me to follow and intervene without any effort.
I quickly realized that this knowledge was life changing.
Since then I have read all the books Eckhart has written and find myself re-reading them again and again. It will never be boring and there is always something new.
Based on my own experience, I can confirm that introducing presence and non-resistance into everyday life changes the quality of life and helps overcome even very difficult obstacles.
– Charlotte
Inspirational quotes
“When you are present, when your attention is completely in the Now, Presence flows into and transforms what you do. It will have a quality and power. You are present when what you do is not primarily a means to an end (money, prestige, prize), but a fulfillment in itself, when there is joy and liveliness in what you do.”
“When your attention moves to the Now, there is alertness. It’s like waking up from the dream of thought, from the dream of the past and the future. Such purity, such simplicity.”
“When you listen to the thought, you feel a conscious presence—your deeper self—behind or beneath the thought, as it were. This is the beginning of the end of involuntary and compulsive thinking.”
— Eckhart Tolle
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