5 Myths shattered about death

Many people believe they die. They do not agree on what this means or what will happen after that. Some individuals are convinced they have already died and returned to live again. Others feel they are always dreaming and will awaken at the point of death. Still others sense they communicate with the spirits of people supposedly dead.  Many refuse to discuss it.

What happens in the here and hereafter sparks curiosity, fear and controversy. Humans create myths as ways to distract them from what they believe is the inevitable. Now, what if false collective beliefs are used to justify a social institution? What if discussions on death actually invite you to learn to think for yourself? Choose to shatter these myths about dying;

1) You should avoid the subject. Many people do not speak about death as it evokes discomfort in them or, they assume it would bother others.  People who choose not to explore a subject at all do not permit themselves to question what they are told to be true. In fact, diverse perspectives exist and many belief systems to support them. How open-minded you are is said to affect your perception and experience.

2) Your fear will grow with age.  Your state of mind is not age-related.   Imagination affects your health and well-being. It can contribute to joy and anxiety at any age, and shapes how you deal with losing control and facing uncertainty. You are given myriad conditions to learn to adapt to transitions. Life experience gradually prepares you to be less shocked with change as it occurs, including what is expected as death.

3) You will take all you acquire. If you choose to agree, then possession and ownership become vital to you in the physical world.  Egyptian civilisations believed they would take physical possessions and even slaves and animals along to help them on the Other Side. Yet, curiously, objects are found still lying in their tombs.  Another view is all you take with you is your attitude and intangible wisdom. The rest is left behind.

4) Your awareness will not help you. How you think determines what you feel and experience wherever you are.  As you decide to explore what does and does not define you, beneath the conditioning and external appearances, you will begin to move beyond a cycle of suffering. You will gain insight into permanence and impermanence.

5) You must die yourself to understand. If you believe you are an energy being that died and returned to learn more lessons, then you underestimate how much insight you already have.  As you evolve to attune to energy, you enter new levels of awareness to help shatter your human-created myths. Reality is that you experience life to expand your knowledge of emotion, to become more discerning, to learn when attachment and detachment are appropriate.  By sensing the true nature of things, including yourself, doubt fades and trust emerges.

Comments

[Mark]

We are limited by our beliefs, we must be open to death, for death of our form is an absolute. Death is simply another step along our journey. We must work to break down the barriers of our thoughts on death and be able to explore the possibilities.

[Liara Covert]

Mark, it can be meaningful to explore quotes about this subject. We gain insight into death from the views of well-known people and evolve to create our own perceptions. Consider these views;

"While I thought that I was learning how to live, I have been learning how to die.”-Leonardo da Vinci

"To the wll-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure."
-J.K. Rowling

“It is only in adventure that some people succeed in knowing themselves - in finding themselves.”-Andre Gide

"You and I are infinite choice-makers." -Deepak Chopra

[Julie]

Juliet at http://www.LifeMadeGreat.com asks us if we'd chose immortality if given the option. My immediate response was this: (which I've yet to successfully post in her comments, for some reason)

Absolutely not! :) My first reason is taken from a human viewpoint... that I believe in Heaven and reincarnation and soul agreements and purpose and the whole process of humanity's evolutionary experience of creating and living Love. I <i>absolutely</i> want to reconnect in Heaven, acquire new purpose, new avenues to be love and offer love. I want my soul to offer itself in as many ways as necessary, to renew its offerings over and over and over again... Sheer bliss!...to be of service...

Life's SO precious, and the very nature of time adds the thrill of excitement, of discovery, of the momentum of energy... If I were immortal, there'd be no reason for thirsting after life. It sounds absolutely awful. ;)

Taking it out of human terms, my expanded (and not very eloquent) answer is this: Life is continual. There is no beginning, no end, and our souls don't die. My understanding is that time is a man-made construct, therefore, all that ever "was" and "will be" simply IS...always. And that "we" are simply shape-shifting, so to speak. Death, then, is simply a matter of our human forms becoming another form/place...

[Liara Covert]

Julie, Thanks for the reference to Juliet's post. I wrote a similar post entitled, "What if your relatives lived forever." Some human beings already believe the spirit is immortal, much like you describe. However, holding this belief influences human behaviour differently in the physical world. For example, a person may live dangerously, as if each moment could be his last, as an interpretation of of living life to the fullest. A person could also remain indifferent to suffering or hurtful to others as, if such behaviour does not matter. The nature of how you think is a way to enrich your awareness. As a person evolves further, he will recognize and apply love and compassion in ways that serve and benefit the world. It is believed that not only how you think matters, but alo how your philosophy translates into how you live, what you eat and hw you perceive and treat all that exists.

[Daphne]

Hi Liara,

I liked this post very much. So many people fear death and don't even want to talk about it. I am blessed to have a mother that talks about it freely and easily, and that helped shaped my perspective towards death.

My favourite point is your fourth point. Awareness does help, in both life and death. I reviewed The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying recently and was awed at how much they know about death. Reading it myself, I felt death became a closer friend and I felt more comfortable with it. This would also be relevant to your fifth point - you can learn from what others know about death.

Great post.

[Liara Covert]

Daphne, each time I re-read the Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, I find I expand my perspective on the subject. It offers deep ideas that stretch a sense of reality.

You are fortunate to have open-minded people in your midst. When a person is surrounded by sceptics or, people who refuse to speak about death, then that is their call. Everyone is not at the same stage of awareness or self-acceptance yet everyone can still learn from each other.

[Alexys Fairfield]

Hi Liara,
When we learn to curtail our fear on every level, then we will not look at death as something outside of ourselves, but rather a beautiful part of life.

[Evita]

As I continue to go deeper within my soul, I am realizing, or perhaps should I say remembering so many things about "death" and what it really is.

It is too bad I think that our society has created such a negative stigma around death. Its as if it was the worst thing that could ever happen to someone or some plague to be avoided at all costs. Obviously, this comes from our attachment to ego.

Nonetheless, I now see death in such brilliant ways and your post definitely adds a lot of value for others to start opening up to higher and greater possibilities when it comes to death.

[Liara Covert]

Alexys, thanks for encouraging people to remain mindful of how they arouse their own curiosity. The truth of energy is inseparable from who you are, who all humans are. As people become absorbed in their thoughts, they become totally unaware of blocking their perception.

Evita, death can reinforce a diminished sense of self-worth to people who have not yet learned to detach from ego. As indiivduals learn their self-view is often a complete distortion of reality, they begin to view death very differently. To learn to view the physical body without judgment or, to discern such beliefs are misguided, this would initiate new levels of self-healing. In many cases, people define their identity partly with the physical body. In order to accept death, people need to move beyond their misguided physical and other identifications.