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The Holistic Mystic: |
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How to Die and Become Enlightened at the Same Time©
by Lonny Brown, Ph.D. |
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There is really nothing to be afraid of. Remember the instruction: Whatever you come across - go beyond.
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
No matter how long you live, your death is always immanent. Is this morbid? Hardly. Life is all the more precious for being so temporary. But death is not what you think. True, our everyday identity dissolves at death, but consciousness continues right on as sure as the universe does, and - in death as in life - the quality of the experience is all determined by your mind-set. Understanding how to live teaches us everything about how to die.
Dying is of course the ultimate solitary task. There may be loved ones at your side to see you off, and perhaps angels on the other shore to welcome you, but on the dark, mysterious passage between, there's only room for one. The journey may last an eternity or it may occur in the wink of an eye; it may be absolutely terrifying or ecstatically liberating. It all depends on the kind of mental conditioning you've lived with.
There is an old Chinese story about a monk who fell asleep and dreamed he was a butterfly. When he awoke, he wondered whether he was indeed a man who had only dreamed about being a butterfly, or a butterfly now dreaming itself to be a man. Death is something like that... waking up from a very convincing dream.
The truth is, this common experience we routinely call "reality" is so engrossing we think it's all there is, and we've forgotten who we really are and where we come from. Death stands for The End, or the Unknown, and we'd just as soon not get into it, thank you. I mean, I may be small and insignificant, but I'm all I've got, right??
Not really. To reveal a secret known to mystics of every age.. death is no problem. In fact, you can die with the very same comfort and assurance that your feel every night when you fall asleep. When you finally wake up from this life, you'll suddenly realize that death was just the end of a dream; a punch line to a great joke told by your own higher Self.
Death represents a singular opportunity to become enlightened because it is precisely when we may look through the veil of our habitual illusions and glimpse how it all is from a universal perspective. Death is the fast track to Truth.
But many souls are ill-prepared for the transition to the non-corporeal state, and die kicking and screaming, as it were, in fear of losing what they are convinced is most important: the personality, the body, and the comfortable familiarity of material experience. Desires, attachments, and fears in life carry into your dying process, making the transition... well, hell. The forces of our own confused mind project our most terrifying fears and seductive distractions, preventing a potentially smooth ascent towards the clear white light of self-realization.
Many in the East devote themselves to rehearsing their own departure from this life, through renunciation and meditation, particularly towards their later years. It is not uncommon in India for an elderly householder to bid goodbye to family and friends, and retreat to seclusion in preparation for his ultimate journey, the transition to the beyond.
The yoga practice of pratyahara, a systematic meditative sensory-?withdrawal exercise, can be used as a kind of rehearsal for the death experience. Here the meditator carefully tunes out the five senses, one by one, and examines what remains: the non-conditioned awareness itself... unimpeded by time-bound particulars. Western sensory-deprivation technology can also approximate this state of pure consciousness without stimulation.
Tibetans offer readings from the Book of the Dead to the recently deceased. It is basically a flight manual used to guide the disincarnated negotiating the confusing psychic landscape of the lower astral planes (bardos). It's rough if you fear losing everything and don't have much experience standing on emptiness. Yet it is precisely at this moment when Enlightenment is closest.
Chaos is the window of opportunity to the prepared mind.
It all comes down to remembering a few essential truths: Stability resides in seeing the essence of all phenomena as empty. Enlightenment is directly and clearly perceiving the void as the constant source of all appearance.
How then can a person die consciously, in equanimity, without fear or delusion, into Enlightenment? The answer sounds simple enough, but it requires a lifetime of practice.
The way to enlightened death is the same as the way of enlightened living. The best way to die is also the best way to meditate, to relax, to make love, to give birth, to defecate, to urinate, to sleep, to cry, to sneeze, to have orgasm: it is expressed in the two deceptively common words: Let Go.
LET GO of your body, that old friend that served you so well. LET GO of your cherished identity. LET GO of what you thought was important. LET GO of all fears. There is no real threat. LET GO of your expectations, opinions, and smart ideas altogether. LET GO of the world as you knew it.
Systematically LET GO of the physical elements: earth, water, fire, air.. Again and again, LET GO of your breath. LET GO of your mind. With faith in the Universe, you can even LET GO of what you think it is to be human. LET GO of everything you think of, everything you would grasp for security. Even "inside" and "outside" become useless. LET GO until you become letting go, in the ultimate realization that the whole/holy universe is void, omnipresent and perpetual.
Excerpt from Enlightenment in Our Time by Lonny J. Brown. www.BookLocker.com/LonnyBrown www.Holistic.com/Lonny |
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Lonny Brown,
Ph.D.
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Lonny J. Brown, Ph.D. is the author of "Self-Actuated Healing" (Naturegraph, Publ.), and "Enlightenment In Our Time," (BookLocker.com/
LonnyBrown).
His writings on holistic health have appeared on AOL's Alternative Medicine Forum and in Alternative Health Practitioner, Yoga Journal, and many other progressive publications.
Dr. Brown teaches holistic health, mind/body healing, and stress reduction courses at hospitals, schools and businesses throughout the US. His Web site also features essays, tapes, books, and links to a variety of integrative health sources.
Lonny J. Brown, Ph.D. is also the author of " ENLIGHTENMENT ONLINE - The Newsletter for Spiritual Cyberspace.
holistic.com/lonny
lonny@holistic.com
lonnybrown@aol.com
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