Death
In the transition to another place,
death is the carriage once more.
Death can take all things but itself,
but what is taken is given again.
Has the Earth ever died,
to be snapped shut in a
metal coffin and flung
into the universe
and pronounced dead?
When has the universe
ceased to exist?
So it is with the soul.
The essence of ourselves
and our beloved ones
never dies.
Nature can change
the actor’s face but can
never change the story.
© K S Brown
THE PASSING OF DEATH
Universal peace, the state of being within us, does not equate with confusion, fear, or anxiety. The subject of death, the appointment we all have to keep, is a source of worry and concern for most people. Apart from accidents, we all have a designated date of passing. An understanding of death and its aftermath is a necessary factor in having true peace.
In spring, a bush produces many beautiful flowers that last from a few days to a few weeks. The flowers then fade, weaken, fall or are blown away. Yet they return in the following year.
The flowers represent our bodies, but the bush is our permanence, our soul that does not die. This is the essence of our understanding of death. Essentially. there is no death but the collapse of the body.
No one is finished. We are all one in both this state and the next. On passing, the individual soul unites with the Supreme soul. Here, death can be portrayed as the beloved. The Indian poet Tagore writes “Moron re Tuhu Momo Shyam o soman” where death is the beloved (Shyam being Lord Krishna, the beloved of Sri Radha).
Being and its ultimate potential is achieved through death. The German philosopher, Heidegger, declared “To be is to be towards death.” From the moment of our birth, we move towards death. It is important to live with death, giving more importance to what we do whilst living. Death is a transitory phase moving us back to our real home that is not the transitory material existence of this earth plane. Here we are visitors and, in many cases, reconnecting with loved ones.
“In my mansion, I have prepared a room for you,” said Jesus Christ.
Death is the preparation for our next existence built on our current one. In death, being loses itself and is pulled into the future. Death is a mere journey for the soul to this future.
The Danish philosopher and theologian Kierkegaard once said, “Life is lived forwards but can only be understood backwards”.
The act of dying is less traumatic than the act of birth.
The Supreme being is the act of our coming and our going. During the twilight, our future is being planned with everything coordinated to enable the realization of our next purpose (dharma).
Dying should be the most sacred act of our living. It is the supreme passing into our holiest of existence.
Kelvin Brown
Because I Could Not Stop For Death
Because I could not stop for death
he kindly stopped for me.
The carriage held but just ourselves, and immortality.
We slowly drove.
He knew no haste
and I had put away
my labour and my leisure too,
for his civility.
We passed the school, where children strove
at recess in the ring.
We passed the fields of gazing grain.
We passed the setting sun
or rather, he passed us.
The dews drew quivering and chill
for only Gossamer, my gown, my Tippet, only Tulle.
We paused before a house that seemed
a swelling of the ground.
The roof was scarcely visible,
the cornice in the ground.
Since then,’ tis Centuries
and yet
feels shorter than the day
I first surmised the horses’ heads
were toward eternity.
Emily Dickinson
