Death is neither depressing nor exciting; it is simply a fact of life."
It holds us in its sway. For a few short moments, Ticks on the cosmic clock.
We are gone, Or our beloved is gone, And someone weeps.
Over there somewhere, Another life begins.
The clock ticks, And it all starts over."
We materially advanced westerners have few guideposts for managing our experiences with death. We gape at it on the movie screen-- images spiced with explosions, smoke, and flame, with short takes and quick cuts, but we never look it in the face. Never see it with unblinking eyes. We eat meat killed conveniently out of sight. Our executions are behind high prison walls. We turn away from the squashed opposum on the road. Our families give up their last breath all too often in hospitals that are to the spirit as a vacuum is to air. Some of us allow our nation's children to carry guns and shoot each other down in the street as we sit idly by insulated by newsprint and videotape.
Safely quarantined from death, we let it titillate us on screen and in books. But do we know what to do when we encounter it for real? We know to cry for our dead pet. We pay homage to the rare dead elder all made up in sunday best laying stiff, but pretty, in the open coffin. But these experiences are thrust upon us unwillingly and we retreat from them as soon as we can.
What if we really concentrated on the change that is death? How would we be different if we could look at death with clear eyes, see it for its mystery and grotesqueness?
How much more would we appreciate life if we were not afraid to examine the alternative to it?
Most of us grasp at life, holding it tightly so that we don't lose it. In grasping we fail to relax and enjoy the life that we so much fear losing.
We need to realize that ALL is impermanent. We all go some time, so it is prudent to be prepared for the moment of our transition.
At the same time consider that those whom you love will be gone sometime too. Maybe before you, maybe after you, but there will be separation.
That means: Live life with fullness. Just BE in your life. Be aware. Be mindful. Be fearless. Be compassionate. Love. Share. Forgive.
Look around at those you share air with. Think of your family and friends. How would you respond if these individuals were gone for good?
How can you prepare yourself for the loss.
What has been left unsaid?
What has been left undone?
What amends would you regret not making?
What can you do now to bring a greater sense of completion to your life?
The Summerlands have a real existence on the astral plane, and yet are to a certain extent self-created, whether on an individual or a group basis. In other words, the kind of Summerland in which you find yourself, and the company you meet there, depends on your own stage of development and on the strength of your links with the other entities concerned. Parts of the Peersolality of your last incarnaton, on the astral and lower mental levels, are obviously still involved.
In general, it seems to be a period of necesary rest and recuperation, and of the absorption (and discussion with friends?) of the lessons of the incarnation just experienced.
In due course, you withdraw from the Summerlands too; all that is left is your Individuality, your immortal self, existing on a level of consciousness about which we, at least, are not prepared to be dogmatic, because its nature can hardly be grasped except perhaps in flashes on intuituion, or described in the language of the level on which we find ourselves at the moment. But it can be said that is, too, k is a period of absorption of experience, at the fundamental level level of the Individual: and perhaps, in proportion to one's degree of development, of consideration and choice of the circumstances of one's coming reincarnation.
SUMMERLANDS: A spiritualist word for the Heaven which souls enter after death. Often used by believers in Reincarnation (q.v.) to denote the astral stage of rest after physical death, before the Individuality (q.v.) withdraws from all the lower levels to prepare for its next Incarnation (q.v.).