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Death Makes Life Possible
When you are a grandparent, you will no longer be a baby, a teenager, or a young adult. So when it comes time to go to heaven, which of these people is going to show up?
The person you are today isn’t the same person you were when you were 10 years old. Certainly your body has changed completely from that of the 10-year-old. None of the molecules in your cells is the same, and neither is your mind. You certainly don’t think like a child.
In essence, the 10-year-old you once were is dead. From a 10-year-old’s perspective, the 2-year-old you once were is also dead. The reason that life seems so continuous is that you have memories and desires that tie you to the past, but these too are ever shifting.
Just as your body comes and goes, so does the mind with its fleeting thoughts and emotions. When you are aware of being yourself without being attached to any particular age, you’ve found the mysterious observer within who doesn’t come and go.
Only witnessing awareness qualifies as that observer–it remains the same while everything else changes. It would be futile to hold on to who you are at this moment in terms of body and mind.
You are dying at every moment so that you can keep creating yourself.
You are not in the world; the world is in you. This, the main tenet of the one reality, also means that you are not in your body; your body is in you. You are not in your mind; your mind is in you. There is no place in the brain where a person can be found.
So when we say that the soul leaves a person’s body at the moment of death, it would be more correct to say that the body leaves the soul. The body is already coming and going; now it leaves without coming back.
Adapted from The Book of Secrets, by Deepak Chopra (Harmony Books, 2004).
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25 comments
add your comment »Dixon can you substantiate your claim with hard fact? I think not!
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Dixon, how do you know what a man who lived over 2000 years ago would substantiate? Were you there? That book you call a bible was written by illiterate, superstitious, misogynistic men about 800 years after the death of the man they called Christ. How can you fall for all that religious programming and propaganda? Think outside the square.
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Oh please, Dixon. Give me a break!
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The ONLY death that gives life is the death of Jesus Christ! He cannot substantiate any of these things about the world is in you etc.
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The ONLY death that gives life is the death of Jesus Christ! He cannot substantiate any of these things about the world is in you etc.
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With everything I read from Dr. Chopra, I never cease to be amazed when he puts these things into perspective. It all just makes so much sense and is simple to understand and comprehend for me. It all seems so familiar. I get it!
Jeanne D.
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I agree with rayed. All of physical reality, including all our ideas of who we are
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I find it interesting and revealing that Deepak Chopra chooses to illustrate his thoughts that supposedly revere aging and our elderly people, by using a young, physically attractive girl. He thus perpetuates society's obsession with "youth" and "physical beauty". What gives, Deepak? Why not change the picture to a wise and beautiful old person? With older people, their inner beauty really does show on their faces, because their life experiences have been etched there - unlike the young and vacuous "Paris Hiltons" whose ugliness does not (yet) show.
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Barbara, you're RIGHT ON THE MARK! Also - people - please understand that ALL THE RELIGIONS PRACTICED BY MAN, are ALL "man-made" religions. What's more, these religions - all except perhaps a few very peace-centric ones like the Bahai faith, are responsible for much of the killing and base behaviour that goes on in the world today.
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Our essence is not physical. Deepak makes a valid point. However, much of what we are seems to depend on our physicality; this is why we regret its passing.
I have yet to see any convincing evidence of the existence of the soul in the sense that Deepak seems to use the word. I hope he will forgive me if I misunderstand him.
There is an emotion deeper than love and stronger than desire. There is another way to feel time. Yes, the world is in us Deepak, we are one. We should not fear the change but metamorphosis of a loved one or ourselves, can still touch our humanity.
John
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