Life Before Death

Life Before Death

Life After Death is a popular topic with varying opinions about its possibility. But what about life before death? What characterizes life? The answer to this question heavily influences our opinion about the possibility of life after death. And in fact, it decisively influences our definition of death too.

If life is just about pumping of the heart and activity of the brain, then absence of these two can be called death. But life is more than the functioning of an electro-chemical mechanical system; life is about consciousness – about thinking, feeling, desiring. Life is about the ability to perceive. Consciousness is what differentiates a man from a machine, a live human from a dead one.

No characteristic of matter (atoms, molecules, electrons, etc.) suggests that it can be the source of consciousness or the seat of perception. What, or who is it, that perceives or is conscious? For example, a periscope helps me see beyond a high wall, but I can see not because of the periscope, but because I have eyes that can see. The periscope is merely the medium through which the light rays are reaching my eyes. Similarly, the eyes of my body are merely the arrangements of atoms that allow light to pass through. I see what I see, not because of the atomic arrangement of my eyes, but because I have the ability to perceive and make sense of the incoming light.

That I is the soul. I can see, hear, feel, think, will, etc. only because I (the soul) have these abilities. These perceptive abilities that characterize consciousness are the inherent qualities of the soul. Since matter does not have these abilities, we understand that the soul is unlike matter. The soul is non-material, it is spiritual.

The soul does not depend on matter for its fundamental abilities of perception. In fact, its fundamental abilities to perceive are conditioned by the nature and state of the body that it occupies. For example, going back to the periscope example, how well I can see beyond the high wall depends on how clean the lens of the periscope is. Even if my eyesight is perfect, a dirty lens will hamper my perception. Thus, to define life in terms of a pumping heart and an active brain is like defining eyesight in terms of the condition of the periscope. Just like my fundamental ability to see is not dependent on the periscope, the soul does not depend on the body for any of its fundamental abilities.

Since the soul, characterized by consciousness, does not depend on anything that makes up the body while it’s in the body, we understand that the soul does not need the body for its existence. The body is merely a lump of matter; it is always dead. Life is when a soul occupies a body and animates it; death is when the soul moves on to leave behind a dead lump of matter – the body.

Life exists not because of a functioning body, but despite being in an inherently dead body. If life exists even before death, it definitely can exist after death.

The Joy of Sublime

There's hardly anything remarkably noble in the lives of most of the famous fiction authors whose work we tend to admire. This discovery has been a source of great disappointment for me. But it now gives be double the joy when I discover sublime writing in the works of great souls.

Plug in to the Tree of Universal Principles

The unwise mind thinks in terms of this or that, but the wiser mind thinks in terms of this and that. Wisdom makes us see the interrelationships between all things. Wisdom reveals some principles as higher than others and some principles as adjacent to each other but connected to some higher common principle. Enlightened action requires us to understand our current conditioning and these interrelationships of principles, and then act in our respective capacities fuelled by the highest principles.

The key is to not judge others whose hierarchy of principles is different from ours. It requires deep study and genuine humility and intense desire to find out the truth to arrive at the highest principles. Very few are fortunate enough to encounter, and to actually appreciate, the Absolute Truth.

The Absolute Truth is way beyond the sensory perception and wildest speculations of the typical human being. And his sense of self importance and his illusion about his own intelligence blinds him to any instructions about transcendence. Thus they keep busy with inherently meaningless matters of this world because they are infatuated with the sense gratification and ego satisfaction that they provide.

The transcendalist has answers for all problems of this world in a practical way based on the sound hierarchy of universal principles. It's not about solving all problems in this world, which is utopian, but about how to lead ones life to navigate the practical and philosophical complexities of life in this world. Its about starting from your current set of principles and following a practical process to gradually align yourself to the highest set of principles. It's not about excluding principles, but of harmonizing them with the highest principles.

Just plug in.

Happiness of needing less

No matter what the contemporary world view is or which era it is, happiness comes only to the one who is satisfied with less.

Aversion to the Truth

One is averse to the truth not because we think that it may not be the truth but because it stands against our own physical, mental, intellectual, social, and egoistic convenience. And so we espouse the logically absurd ideology that truth is a matter of belief. One who cares for truth more than anything else, who wants to know it at any cost, is ready to accept that truth, although unlimitedly multifaceted, is still an objective reality; either something is true or it is not. Those who say that truth is a matter of belief don't have the courage and humility to search after the truth; they are too engrossed in their insignificant affairs considering them to be very important - more than finding out the truth. They believe that they are very significant; a logical absurdity indeed.

What's best for you?

Most people will agree that everyone does not know what's best for them. That's why there are consultancy services. But almost everyone seems to think that a materialistic godless outlook to life is the best option available. Do they really know what's best for them?

Everyone's opinion is not equally important

Everyone's opinion is not equally important.