Life, Death And Everything In Between

In this session we contemplate the nature of our inevitable mortality, discussing the inherent differences between the outlooks of different religions/spiritualities and what it means for our transition through life and into death. We also discuss the miracles that can be found in each and every moment.

This track is taken from my course, ‘Awaken To Your Highest Calling’, available now via my profile.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to the session.

I invite you to take a seat or lay down and get yourself comfortable.

You can close down the eyes if you wish and take a deep slow breath in through the nose and out through the mouth.

In a moment I'm going to share with you a question to contemplate and then we'll just sit in silence for a minute and let it percolate.

Then we'll talk about the question and just see where the discussion leads us.

This question and indeed all of the questions in this course are designed to be a catalyst for change,

A prompt that will help you to reframe your thinking,

Help you to consider new possibilities and approaches and to usher in a state of being that is more attuned with your highest calling.

I invite you to approach the question with an attitude of extreme openness,

One where for the duration of the session you welcome in and accept any and all responses that arise.

There are no right or wrong answers,

No good or bad thoughts,

Nothing for you to run from or move towards.

Just be open to whatever arises as it is for what it is in this moment without judgment or filter because by doing so you'll be opening yourself to the deepest and truest expression of wisdom and intuition available to you.

So with that said let's take a moment to sit with today's question.

Have you accepted your own mortality?

Have you accepted your own mortality?

So this question,

Have you accepted your own mortality,

Really hits at that,

Well,

Death,

At the end,

At deep core fears,

At highest level spirituality.

There are many practices there are many practices across many traditions that use this concept of contemplation and acceptance of mortality as the practice itself.

You sit and you imagine yourself passing or having passed,

You look over the entirety of your life,

You contemplate the process of nothingness,

To birth,

To life,

To death,

Back to nothingness.

Now when contemplating mortality we come up against a interesting sort of contradictional conundrum depending on the spirituality that we partake in.

If you believe in an afterlife,

If you believe that all of this ends on this plane and then something of you continues into the next plane,

That leads you to maybe distance yourself from the reality here on earth.

Now I can only approach this from my perspective,

My contemplation here comes from a place of agnosticism,

Not atheism.

I don't know,

I don't know the nature of reality,

I don't know what,

If any religion is true,

I don't know which spiritual practice is true,

Or if maybe the truth is a combination of the different practices,

Humanity practices,

With some more unknown in there.

And the reason I don't know this is because I've not seen it,

I've not experienced it,

All I am is me in this moment right now.

People talk of the afterlife,

People suggest these things happen,

People speak to these places,

But all of that speaking,

All of those words,

Every single book is written in this reality,

In this plane of existence.

Unless you've experienced it,

It's all really a guess.

Now you may have your reasons to believe in an afterlife,

You may believe,

Or rather,

Let's get firmer here,

You may quote-unquote know that an afterlife exists.

Maybe.

And I invite you to maintain that belief.

But just for the purposes of this session,

I would suggest that maybe you hold the place that you don't quite know what that looks like.

How can you?

If you are going to a place that is beyond you,

That is beyond human understanding,

That is created by an infinite,

All-knowing,

All-wise deity,

How can the mere human mind understand or contemplate or communicate such a place?

The reason I'm putting this preference in is that if your response to the contemplation of mortality is,

Oh,

There's an afterlife,

It's okay,

There's a risk that that takes you away from the beauty and the reality of the world that you definitely know you have,

There is an undeniable fact that you are here right now.

That's true.

You are listening to these words.

You're seeing,

You're hearing,

You're touching,

You're tasting,

You're smelling in this moment,

And in the next,

And in the one after that,

And that perpetual state of nowness,

Being here nowness in this moment will continue until you pass.

That's true.

You know that to be 100% undeniably true,

But you don't know with 100% truth what,

If anything,

Is going to happen afterwards,

Nor do you really know what's happened beforehand.

This can lead to a place of,

Or a feeling of meaninglessness.

If there's nothing after this,

What does it matter?

But the response to that is this.

Our life could be viewed as a blip of light in the midst of darkness.

There is nothing beforehand.

There is something,

Then there is nothing afterwards,

Perhaps.

But right now,

In this moment,

There is something,

There is light,

There is existence.

And yeah,

It ends,

But just because it ends doesn't mean we can't enjoy the ride while we're here.

So I say all of that to say all of this.

Have you accepted your own mortality?

This will end.

Because we see the universe through our own eyes,

From a solipsistic perspective,

You know,

I've only ever been inside my mind,

Right?

And it's very clear that things around me pass.

I've lost relatives,

And friends,

And pets,

And you know,

Famous people that I've followed and appreciated.

All of these people have passed on,

And they're no longer here.

And what we're left with is memories or vestiges of their life,

Their art,

Their creations.

But all of that is happening around me.

And indeed,

When I pass,

The world will end,

In a sense,

Not like literally end,

But from my perspective,

When I go,

Everything goes.

That's really wild when you think about it.

If you've lost a relative,

Which I'm sure you have,

Their passing impacts your life,

Right?

They're no longer here,

They're no longer here to be in your life,

For good or ill.

They're not able to be spoken to,

They're gone.

But when you go,

Everything goes.

Can you sit with that idea?

There's an idea of,

You know,

The ego,

This perpetual state,

Like it's different to me.

I've spoken to a lot of people in the coaching space of,

Have you accepted your own mortality?

And a lot of people simply haven't.

They don't believe it will happen to them.

It's this distant thing far away.

And I hope for them and their sakes,

They are right.

But the reality is,

Is life is full of randomness and chance,

And sometimes that chance doesn't fall upon you the right way.

Have you accepted that?

This isn't a scare tactic,

Just a reality.

There's studies after studies after studies to suggest that people view themselves as more lucky,

More deserving,

Better than other people.

More on average,

Smarter,

More intelligent,

More wise,

Better off.

But if everyone's viewing themselves as above average,

That doesn't work,

Right?

It's the reason people play the lottery.

It's the reason people think that they won't be diagnosed with some sort of condition.

It's the reason people take risks,

Because they think they'll be fine.

Which is,

You know,

Probably a good attitude to have,

You know,

It allows you to not live in fear.

But when taken on the whole as a species,

We can't all be above average,

Right?

Half of us are below average in luck,

In chance,

In mental or physical illnesses,

In life circumstances,

In every single category.

The reason I'm saying this is that you may feel internally that you will be fine,

That it won't happen to you.

But I would argue that everyone that it has happened to was probably thinking the same way as well.

I understand that this session might be a bit doom and gloom,

But we are contemplating mortality here.

Because it's very easy with,

You know,

Modern technology to believe that death is far away,

That it's not going to come for us.

There is talk about scientists trying to solve death.

They're looking at what death of old age actually is,

You know,

Telomere reduction and cellular reproduction issues and errors.

You're fixing these problems as a way to stave off death by old age,

Because old age passing isn't really a thing.

There's no cause that you get to a certain age and you die.

It's a function of different yet connected issues that over time the body faces.

Issues over time that the body faces.

And when combined,

This results in a reduction in functioning and a susceptibility to issues or illnesses that in your youth you could fight off easily.

That leads to the death.

The point is,

Is that we're sort of very rapidly entering a sci-fi universe in which we can get amazingly good medical treatments and,

You know,

Catered vitamins and supplements that are perfectly geared towards your exact needs.

And,

You know,

Who knows what's going to be invented moving forward.

Life expectancy is predicted to increase exponentially and people may be living to 100,

To 120,

To 150.

There is a significant movement of people who are trying to literally live forever.

They believe that if they just live long enough,

They will be able to jump onto that technology and just perpetually continue their life,

You know,

With medical interventions and good health care and supplements and all of this sort of stuff.

That's a thing that they're trying to do.

Go even more sci-fi and people are talking about downloading consciousnesses into machines and AI integration and uploading to the cloud and all of these things.

This sounds far-fetched.

It sounds like pure science fiction but,

You know,

Aeroplanes were science fiction.

Satellites were science fiction.

AI was science fiction,

Right?

So who knows what will come and who knows if it will come in our lifetime.

But the reality is,

Even with every one of those interventions,

Things can still happen.

Even if you stay off old age,

Random accidents can happen.

Even if you are uploaded to the cloud,

The servers can be destroyed and broken,

Right?

Eventually,

Everything will end,

Right?

Heat death of the universe sort of situation.

So,

All of those attempts at prolonging life are really just that.

There will be and there can't be immortality in this plane of existence.

Have you accepted that?

What does it mean if everything ends?

What does that mean for your life,

What you're doing,

What you're acting,

The values,

The goals,

The dreams,

The interactions you're having?

If you accept that it's soon,

And I say soon which could mean,

You know,

Anywhere from today to the next 80 to 100 years,

Right?

That's pretty soon on a grand scheme,

That soon you will pass.

Is this the last time you will do this activity?

If so,

Are you doing it with that level of importance,

With that level of weight?

Mowing the lawn sucks,

But what if it's the last time you do it?

What about seeing your friend or your family?

Now,

I'm not saying to live in this doom and gloom.

Oh,

I'm about to pass sort of situation.

No,

What I'm saying is to just keep in mind like a percent of a percent awareness that this all ends.

So,

Wouldn't it be good to be a little bit slightlier,

Touch more mindful,

More present,

More loving,

More kind,

Just a bit?

Because it ends and wouldn't it be good to leave another person,

Another finite entity with just a touch more love and joy for whatever is the remainder of their finite existence?

So,

I ask you,

Have you accepted your own mortality?

Have you accepted your own mortality?

So,

Well done.

This brings us to the end of the session.

At the bottom of your screen,

You'll see the option to view the classroom or to ask a question.

Before moving on,

I invite you to take a moment to click through and share your insights,

To read the answers from other students and to hear my replies.

Remember to start your responses by restating the question or in this case,

Acceptance.

So,

We all know which one you're referring to.

This is an opportunity for deep learning,

Further introspection and insight.

So,

Please don't miss out.

I look forward to seeing you in the next session.

Thank you.

This session was taken from the course Awaken to Your Highest Calling.

It's out now and available on Insight Timer via my profile.

Check it out.

Reviews

This was actually relatively easy for me to contemplate because I do have faith and spiritual beliefs although I agree with the unknown factors. I truly believe we are way more than we could possibly ever imagine being here in this life. I don’t know a lot about atheism, but I feel like even those people have found their path. That’s what they’re here to learn and to accept. There’s in no way by looking up into the universe and into the stars that this is the only life form or only being or existence that we can possibly have. That I truly have faith in. I disagree that we go from nothing to nothing. I believe we go from everything to everything. As some have said in recent Insight Timer horses, we are so experiencing a body. Some mortality for me is accepted because it’s not death. It’s the end of this existence in this body in this world. At least that’s my thought through percolation. Always appreciate your insights and just having us think about things we would not normally think about. Have a great Monday Namaste 🙏

Acceptance- brings a lot of questions and thoughts to me. If I knew today was my last, would I do anything different today?