Circle of Elders - Honoring those whose journey continues in the world hereafter …
To die will be an awfully big adventure. Peter Pan by Sir J.M. Barrie
This morning as I woke, began moving about and thinking about this week’s post, I pulled Gregge Tiffen’s book, Life in the World Hereafter: The Journey Continues) off the shelf. I hadn’t looked at it for quite a long while and wondered what it might offer in terms of pivoting – both personally and for this weekly post.
The week for me has been a bit of a roller coaster as I’ve explored some current stories and events, curious about the stories underlying them. In many I found what seems to be much of humanity’s current story: competition, finite life, I’m right/you’re wrong, directives as to what to do, etc.
When I opened Gregge’s book, these words popped out at me:
The Law of Free Will does not terminate with death. We have choice both now and in the hereafter. I can’t help but feel that one of our greatest human defects is that we don’t recognize our power and the potential it affords us.
That took me back to basics and to other words of his wisdom:
If we understood death and the reason for it, if we knew what to expect in the hereafter, we could appreciate the life we have and make it a deep and satisfying adventure.
This Gregge Tiffen wisdom started for me as an idea on a page many years (okay, decades – but who’s counting) ago. Over my years of exploration, experience and study it became a belief. It is a belief on which I base many (hopefully most and, with awareness, heading toward ALL) choices in life. A new story about death is the beginning of truly living.
Amidst so much talk and attention to ‘death’ today, it seems useful to examine our stories about just what death is. Where did your stories originate? Are they still valid for you? Do they support you in living a full, satisfying life (whatever that me mean to you individually)?
Perhaps one of our points of pivot is our stories about life and death. Perhaps now is a good time to take stock of them.
Is your story that life is finite? That you and I – body, mind, spirit – are here on the earth for x number of years and then we ‘die’? We are done, gone. Period. End of (our) story. Imagine for a moment what life choices one is likely to make from such a story. Is this what we observe as we watch the world unfold each day?
Or is your story that life is infinite, a continuum of cycles, in form and formless, on this earth plane and beyond? Therefore, there is no ‘death’ other than of a physical body at the end of its cycle. Imagine what life choices one makes from this story and how deepening conviction in this story can expand our choices in life. A new story about death is the beginning of truly living.
Like life itself, our beliefs (our stories) about life and death evolve over time as we each experience our unique journey and become more aware of our story. I believe Peter Pan is right! What are your stories?
Long Live the Free Box!