Do I Die?

 

I hate to continually ignore this question, but it is never clear who “I” is.

If you are referring to me, the guy who drives a Toyota and works at Lowe’s and lives in a house in Powder Springs, then yes, that fellow completely plays out. There is ample proof of this. All you have to consider would be the same qualifiers; do Toyotas eventually stop running? Will Lowe’s eventually close their doors? Will this house cave in? Will Powder Springs be under the sea?

We could go on, but it should already be apparent that things do come to an end.

What is included in the group of things that end? My thoughts. Your thoughts too.

An easy way to determine what will end is to identify what started.

“In my beginning is my end.” ~ T.S. Elliot

Trying to simplify this as much as possible, it may be easier to say that anything which has a beginning will end.

Was my house built? Is it made of trees which had to be killed? If so, then I live in a part of a dead forest; in a living house. When the house dies, a forest will live.

One of the classic pushbacks would be consciousness. 

And, of course, consciousness is another branch of being with its own, unique characteristics, but if we are referring to thoughts, we are not pointing to consciousness, but something which arises out of consciousness. As with any other temporary thing, a thought is said to occur, which is another way of saying that a thought has a beginning. Of course, it is not difficult to prove that thoughts also have ends. Thoughts are not consciousness, but they think they are as a result of one of them which says so.

Your forgetfulness does not signify your death; it only reveals the properties of thought, which are known to be occurring and departing all the time.

Do you remember yesterday? The very word, remember, literally means: put back together. Can you put yesterday back together with your thoughts? You actually can, most likely, build an imaginary model of yesterday, but with only 24 hours having passed, you will probably get the whole of yesterday wrong. As more time passes, it becomes increasingly more difficult to build accurate models of events you have experienced.

If I were to ask you what happened to you on a very specific day, many years ago, you may not be able to put any of it back together. The exception would be a date with historical significance; in which case you may be able to say, “I know right where I was that day and what I was doing.”

This is not unusual. The result is due to the fact that such memories are more robust as a result of other various properties and values associated with them. In my generation, it is not unusual for someone to say that they remember 9/11 like it was yesterday. That day was filled with emotion and mummified with layers of bitterness, anger, sadness, regrets and all sorts of other sustaining properties. However, sufficient to that day were its troubles.

 

Sufficient to yesterday were all of its properties, values, quanta and experience, but those conditions are all insufficient for today. This does not mean that there is no value in our memories of our past or our dreams of the future; it only means that those experiences were for the moment in which they were experienced or will be experienced. What matters most about this moment is this moment and the goal should be to have joy. To bring about joy is as important as to gather joy; both procure joy.

Love is the endless net of eternity and therein, in every interval, you will find the jewels of joy, as sewn in and as reflecting You. You don’t need to mine any of Life’s jewels, but you should make a conscious decision to become a jewel in the interval where you now find yourself on the eternal net. Be joy, and you will find joy, staring back at you in the reflection of the next jewel you come to. It will then occur to you that the jewels you find are the ones you’ve been placing all the time.

What we experience is always a reflection of what we are; and Who we Are is The One Result of All Experience.

You have everything to do with how this experience turns out. Sew joy.

In fact, sow and sew every chance you get. May your seeds be joy may your stiches fasten jewels of joy into every interval of time and space as you move through it, and may You become more and more aware that You are The Net and the fruit you’ve sewn and sown.

The words you say will echo and you will hear them as if spoken by another. Who you choose to be will be reflected in everyone you are not, as if you were to become a mirror facing mirrors revealing yourself ad infinitum.

The Choice to Love will come back to you as the experience of being loved.

~