There is an ancient stream of thought which suggests that, for one to live fully, one must understand how to die rightly. This protected stream of living thought is beginning to mature into an ever-widening, captivating river of global realization.
According to these sacred teachings, Humanity can be divided into three distinctly different camps: those who believe that death is the unavoidable cataclysmic end; those who practice a form of conditional immortality; and those who realize a profoundly liberating higher reality. Death is Life.
Every life is a journey; sometimes of many decades and sometimes brief moments in the sun. Every human journey has a unique purpose; and, by definition, every journey brings movement. Movement is a guarantee of approaching change. This is the soul’s timeless formula of growth, fresh enlightenment for the human heart. Journey, movement, change, each bringing a newly garnered measure of awareness.
No one can truly know the hidden depths of another’s sorrows, nor the heights of another’s joys. And yet, we have each experienced these same human emotions on our journeys. This is why the capacity for real compassion is universal within the human kingdom, with dwindling exceptions.
These exceptions, while steadily diminishing down through the ages, remain an unsettling and disruptive influence on humanity’s journey into movement, change, and growth. This first group holds no vision beyond the finality of death; therefore, justifying a life lived solely for self and all that pleasures that little self. This group of individual selves commits enormous willpower and intellect to the exclusive acquisition of a glamourized, self-indulgent life of amassed material wealth.
The idea of compassion would be rejected with the same swift dismissal as the alien notions of compromise, cooperation, or consensus-building. Any thought that smacks of sharing is viewed as an attempt to undermine material accumulations. This is the cold, calculated world of separate.
Each stands alone; and perceives all others with suspicion. Each amasses power alone; and then secures respect purchased with the coin of intimidation. In the end, each will likely die alone bereft of the human qualities which make us worthy to look upwards to the stars. Words can offer no comfort, nor hold any meaning for this group.
The second group also lives for the self, but to a lesser degree. The hard shell of the human heart has been broken open; and they have glimpsed the richness of the lit jewel within, compassion.
Their approach to life acknowledges a concept of conditional immortality, because their logical minds are equipped to easily compartmentalize all human activity. While adept at promoting a competitive mindset in corporate affairs, law, investments, and governmental power structures, they regularly attend churches, synagogues, mosques, and frequent a wide range of philanthropic venues.
Their reputations, for generosity, are assured by unsacrificial acts of sharing: fund-raisers for local hospitals, attendance at gala events to benefit global causes, private dinner parties securing museum donations, and contributions to dinner dances hosted by international dignitaries.
Heaven will surely overlook unwarranted judgements, unthinking acts of selfishness, and any divisive comments straining personal relationships. They have paid-in-full for a coveted seat at God’s table; any lingering fear of Hell is being assuaged with financial offsets.
Yet, a ten-minute photo op, a two-liner on page 6, and a collection of selfies do not make for a rewarding life. These are merely momentary wrinkles whipping across the shallow waters of material existence. Hopefully, these words will give sufficient cause to pause; and provide an opportunity to re-think and question such an unsatisfying and limiting belief system.
Would a truly sacrificial act of anonymous generosity be too high a price for another glimpse at the hidden jewel within? Would the human heart shatter if the giving of self were the mark of genuine kindness? Would an amalgamation of unifying purposes, shared goals, really threaten independence of thought, word, and deed? Is it not time due to relinquish the warrior’s ancient call of ‘divide and conquer’ and discard selfishness onto the dustheap of a troubling history?
Separateness does not bring comfort to an evolving, sentient race of human beings. Division and dominance are the antithesis of harmony and freedom.
Inclusion honors the quiet strength of integrity found within the mystical weave of minds, hearts, and spirits bonded together on a pathway forward. Humanity’s newly awakening consciousness into a global civilization which protects and nourishes all planetary life signals an expanding and evolving understanding about this eternal essence of life.
Fifty-seven percent of the world’s population advocate some version of Life’s continuity which means that the labor of millions of forerunners is beginning to bear fruit. The living reality of immortal Soul is taking up residence in Humanity’s heart. This conscious movement changes everything about the journey and about being human. Out-dated perceptions, attitudes, and priorities are beginning to be upended and shed, to be replaced with fresh, visionary ideas affirming the principles and ideals of the ancient wisdoms.
Marie Corelli, Mabel Collins, and H P Blavatsky, each received confirmation of many of the ideas expressed through their writings after death. So too with a long list of spiritual voices from Yogananda to Rudyard. The Bailey books, written in collaboration with DK in the early part of the last century, will find validation in this Twenty-First Century.
From time immemorial, this has been the evolutionary pattern of expanding human thought: movement, change, and growth into a widening recognition of past, present, and future weaving the tapestry of space into an Eternal Now. We are only on the threshold of revelation into this ever-present living reality.
In Esoteric Psychology (Vol. I, Pg. 96) DK reminds us: “The Mystery of the Ages is on the verge of revelation, and through the revelation of the soul that mystery which it veils will stand revealed.” Then, he continues, “This, our present cycle, is the end of the age, and the next two hundred years will see the abolition of death, as we now understand that great transition, and the establishing of the fact of the soul’s existence.”
These words were written in 1936. It is now 2025. This is the journey, movement, change, and growth of Life Eternal. In one brief human lifetime, the next eighty-nine years, the entirety of planetary life will demonstrate a profound transformation into wholeness, unified completeness.
Which brings us to the third group; and the much aligned, subject of death. To understand death is to see clearly the awe-inspiring totality of Life. This totality can be experienced through many of the classic myths of old, the dreams of last night, and the daily practice of meditation. These three pathways share a common goal: they each open a doorway into remarkable expansions in consciousness.
They speak to a land of livingness behind the heavy temporal veils of earthly existence. Just as the human being transitions into sleep each night, so too the physical being transitions into a very familiar land at the sunset of an incarnation. An extended journey of going abroad.
DK’s words in The Externalization of the Hierarchy (Pg. 232) place the current world challenges in right perspective: “The destruction of form in battle (which causes so much fear to many of you) is of small importance to those who know that reincarnation is a basic law of nature and that there is no death.”
He continues, “The forces of death are abroad today, but it is the death of liberty, the death of free speech, the death of freedom in human action, the death of truth, and of the higher spiritual values. These are the vital factors in the life of humanity; the death of the physical form is a negligible factor in relation to these, and one easily righted again through the processes of rebirth and fresh opportunity.”
The dilemma of freeing oneself from a fear of death can be resolved with one word: direction. Look to Life; not personality. Identify with Life; not form. Embrace Life; not matter. Humanity has a unique opportunity to take its first, tentative steps onto the intuitive plane of consciousness and bring about peace.
It begins by coming together, standing firmly united against this present world-wide night of unchecked destruction, and using The Great Invocation as it was originally intended. This ancient mantra is a powerful spiritual force which could aid in ameliorating the insidious evil that is currently plaguing Humanity.
Right use could purge the fear infecting every human society; and usher in global healing. Nature would then return to equilibrium, purify the waters, restore the lands, and bathe the atmosphere in clean, fresh air, shattering the stranglehold of selfish, dark thoughtforms over human affairs.
“Peace, when it comes, will be the result of right world conditions and right human relationships. It is an effect and not a cause; it is the effect of certain subjective attitudes which are not yet present in the world of a sufficiently wide scale.” Ext of the Hierarchy, Pg 234.
When Humanity establishes this balance in global order, a new dawn, absent of evil, will rise above the horizon. Reconciliation, redemption, restoration, and most importantly reincarnation, will become the touchstones of a foretold spiritual renaissance and the undeniable factual reality of earthly life.
Life is a captivating journey through movement, change, growth, and transiting death; leading into greater journeys of movement, change, growth, and transiting death; leading ever onward into yet-to-be-explored realms of shared livingness. Life is Eternal, Spirit is Immortal, and Love given is the only enduring measure of Soul.
Recognizing our profound need, these are the priceless gifts of the third group, who work tirelessly on behalf of the Whole. Unconditional Love directed outward onto the living plains of planetary life. Energetic waves of Compassion, Goodwill, and Transmutation piercing through the outer shell of daily life and penetrating deep into the hearts of mankind.
They understand the role of service and the responsibility to all living beings. In the true spirit of an ancient proverb, they have promised to journey, without pause, until all Humanity awakens to meet the need of the moment.
“You can measure the love you bring to each day by the joy you experience in each moment.”
There is a passage in A Treatise on White Magic, Pgs. 537-538, which explains: “When the true nature of Service is comprehended, it will be found that it is an aspect of that divine energy which works always under the destroyer aspect, for it destroys the forms in order to release.”
“Service is a manifestation of the Principle of Liberation, and of this principle, death and service, constitute two aspects. Service saves, liberates, and releases, on various levels, the imprisoned consciousness. The same statements can be made of death. But unless service can be rendered from an intuitive understanding of all the facts in the case, interpreted intelligently, and applied in a spirit of love upon the physical plane, it fails to fulfill its mission adequately.”
Words to ponder in these our current days: “When large numbers of the sons of men can so act, then the human family will enter upon its destined work of planetary service. Its mission is to act as a bridge between the world of spirit and the world of material form. All grades of matter meet in man, and all the states of consciousness are possible to him. Mankind can work in all directions and lift the subhuman kingdoms into heaven and bring heaven down to earth.”