Excerpts from the book
"WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I DIE?"
From Frank in Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.: Thanks for your amazing site. I’ve recently begun to “question it all” per your invitation, and I only recently touched the truth of how miserable my life is. I want to be free and I have a hunch that the answer can finally be found in the Advaita teaching. One thing nagging me now is not knowing what happens when the body ends. So, what happens? Thanks again. I look forward to hearing your answer. Frank in Chicago.
F.: Hello, Frank. Thanks for your e-mail. Confusion about this subject has resulted in Viking ships being needlessly burned…along with horses and armor and relative-world riches; in Muslims lining up to kill themselves for a sexual reward in heaven (which they’ll never experience "there" but which they could be enjoying on earth if they could get free of their arrogance, their ignorance and their warped attitudes about women and sex); in pyramids and tombs being needlessly built and filled with treasures; in millions of acres being dedicated to misuse as cemeteries to preserve Christian remains in the belief that they’ll re-form someday...unless the skeletal remains are not “preserved”; in wasting food and money or valuables, needlessly buried across the globe with the deceased; and in Japanese women and pets being needlessly killed in ancient days in order to provide "companionship" to their deceased male mates. (I look at the history of women being slaughtered as the preferred sex for sacrifice to the gods by male priests; at Muslim women who are to suffer and be celibate now so they can be virginal whores for eternity and serve as sex toys for male killers of infidels; at Christian women who are to be subservient to males per their holy book; at Mormom women who gather in units and serve in the harem of one dominant male; and at women being killed because a mate died and he’ll need companionship in the afterlife. I see all that, and more, and in pre-realization days I wondered why any woman wouldn't run like the wind from religious and spiritual teachings. Then I reviewed the bizarre programming and insane conditioning that promises rewards now and rewards later and I understood.) Thousands of other inane practices have plagued the relative existence of persons for millennia as a result of magical thinking and false beliefs about supernatural powers and the afterlife. Humans—curious early on about what happens when “life” leaves a body—first began to long for continuity of the body and mind because of their fears and desires, then came up with ignorant notions around the subject to try to guarantee "life eternal," and finally came up with superpowers that could be appeased and worshipped in order to avoid eternal “death” or “eternal punishment” and in order to attain a blissful “life” for an eternity with the gods. Later, as humankind became more intelligent and as darkness and ignorance lifted during periods of enlightenment and education and the spread of scientific knowledge, the wise came to see the ignorance of man’s assumed knowledge and dreamed-up ideas and insane concepts about this subject and all others. Science and education helped to eliminate three things: (1) the stupidity of mankind [and I use the word “mankind” because it has always been men who dreamed up magical, supernatural ideas and wrote them down in holy books and used them to try to control others] and (2) the ego of humankind [who accepted the notion of humans as being “noble” and “better than all other creatures”] and (3) the beliefs about what happens to a body and mind and personality at the time of death. The question is, have you experienced enough misery that—in spite of the entrenchment of your personas and ego-states and programming and conditioning—you can withstand the perceived attack of those identities and recognize the stupidity of man’s learned ignorance, recognize you’re not noble and special, and consider an entirely new set of truths surrounding the myths and superstitions that personas use to maintain their erroneous concepts and beliefs about what happens when the body "ends"? [To be continued 8 October 2005] Please enter the silence of contemplation.
F.: Hello, Frank. Thanks for your e-mail. Confusion about this subject has resulted in Viking ships being needlessly burned…along with horses and armor and relative-world riches; in Muslims lining up to kill themselves for a sexual reward in heaven (which they’ll never experience "there" but which they could be enjoying on earth if they could get free of their arrogance, their ignorance and their warped attitudes about women and sex); in pyramids and tombs being needlessly built and filled with treasures; in millions of acres being dedicated to misuse as cemeteries to preserve Christian remains in the belief that they’ll re-form someday...unless the skeletal remains are not “preserved”; in wasting food and money or valuables, needlessly buried across the globe with the deceased; and in Japanese women and pets being needlessly killed in ancient days in order to provide "companionship" to their deceased male mates. (I look at the history of women being slaughtered as the preferred sex for sacrifice to the gods by male priests; at Muslim women who are to suffer and be celibate now so they can be virginal whores for eternity and serve as sex toys for male killers of infidels; at Christian women who are to be subservient to males per their holy book; at Mormom women who gather in units and serve in the harem of one dominant male; and at women being killed because a mate died and he’ll need companionship in the afterlife. I see all that, and more, and in pre-realization days I wondered why any woman wouldn't run like the wind from religious and spiritual teachings. Then I reviewed the bizarre programming and insane conditioning that promises rewards now and rewards later and I understood.) Thousands of other inane practices have plagued the relative existence of persons for millennia as a result of magical thinking and false beliefs about supernatural powers and the afterlife. Humans—curious early on about what happens when “life” leaves a body—first began to long for continuity of the body and mind because of their fears and desires, then came up with ignorant notions around the subject to try to guarantee "life eternal," and finally came up with superpowers that could be appeased and worshipped in order to avoid eternal “death” or “eternal punishment” and in order to attain a blissful “life” for an eternity with the gods. Later, as humankind became more intelligent and as darkness and ignorance lifted during periods of enlightenment and education and the spread of scientific knowledge, the wise came to see the ignorance of man’s assumed knowledge and dreamed-up ideas and insane concepts about this subject and all others. Science and education helped to eliminate three things: (1) the stupidity of mankind [and I use the word “mankind” because it has always been men who dreamed up magical, supernatural ideas and wrote them down in holy books and used them to try to control others] and (2) the ego of humankind [who accepted the notion of humans as being “noble” and “better than all other creatures”] and (3) the beliefs about what happens to a body and mind and personality at the time of death. The question is, have you experienced enough misery that—in spite of the entrenchment of your personas and ego-states and programming and conditioning—you can withstand the perceived attack of those identities and recognize the stupidity of man’s learned ignorance, recognize you’re not noble and special, and consider an entirely new set of truths surrounding the myths and superstitions that personas use to maintain their erroneous concepts and beliefs about what happens when the body "ends"? [To be continued 8 October 2005] Please enter the silence of contemplation.
