Waiting

After deep reflection, I would make the statement that there is such a thing as Ultimate Reality. First, I would say that I do believe in Absolute Truth which leads me to believe in an Absolute Reality or Ultimate Reality. For one thing to be absolute, it has to be unchanging, much like many people’s beliefs about an afterlife can be defined as absolute one way or another. Death and rebirth, returning to the world in a new form and traveling to another realm spiritually are the most popular ideas that I have learned about so far. I do not disagree with these ideas saying that they are intangible or unrealistic in any way but I first look at what can be defined in the reality that we live in, the everyday world before trying to reach the Transcendental because there are only some things that we can physically put our hands on, some questions we can truly wrap our minds around and only some places we can truly go at least in a physical sense.

One of the founding Fathers of the Transcendentalist movement, Ralph Waldo Emerson, once stated that “Our fear of death is like our fear that summer will be short, but when we have had our swing of pleasure, our fill of fruit and our swelter of heat, we say we have had

our day.” This to me is like saying that we fear death but in turn it really doesn’t matter because as long as we have a good life it doesn’t really matter because we all die and none of us can control that. I have also heard that the way to prepare for death was to be constantly thinking about it not worrying about it but to keep it at bay. Epictetus was quoted to say, “Let death and exile, and all other things which appear terrible be daily before your eyes, but chiefly death, and you win never entertain any abject thought, nor too eagerly covet anything.” This may seem relatively extreme but it is through the mediation on the subject that we can truly get ready for it. It is like premeditating our own death and in doing so we are freed from all other obsessions in life. This does not explain the afterlife in any way but does help us or give us a way to prepare for our death. I have heard that death can be compared to a sneeze, a relief from all of life’s worries and cares and that upon dying one is released to the next stage of our development or afterworld, the place without death. It is by sneezing that one can reach this level; it is after the sneeze that someone says, “Bless you!” For in fact we will not fear death after it has passed, have the same problems that we do now.

I think in order to understand a conception of life after death, we have to look at life before death as the precursor or the model for what life after death would be like. In life there are laws and absolute truths such as the Law of Conservation of Energy, and the Law of Gravity. These do not change much like the fact that we all eventually in life, come to the point in time where we pass on. This can be followed with the fact that we all have energy, potential or kinetic, and that the energy that we contain is not destroyed. This is an absolute truth that can lead us to make conclusions to what might happen when we die. Many facts can be looked at in this light and I think that to completely understand death one must live and to completely understand life one must die. I think the transcendental reality or the transcendental world completely relates to the world of everyday life in this sense that it is there to give meaning to this world just like this one gives meaning to the afterlife. Without the Alpha there would be no Omega, without life there would be no death, and without people to live in the world and question it, there would be no reality, at least not for us. I personally do believe in life after death in some sort of transcendental form and think that Epictetus summed it up on getting ready for death. If I had to be quoted I would probably say, “live life to the fullest, or do the best you can with every moment,” as a means to achieve some sort of transcendental reality. Like the rituals that are used in the Tibetan Book of the Dead, we can talk to each other while in life and prepare each other for the grandest part of our journey in life, our grand finale, and in turn enjoy our life all the more. I have been told that death is the greatest satisfaction, so it is something to be revered, respected, and waited for…. Patiently I might add.