From a site visitor: On vacation last week and the news was all about a dead politician, a dead singer, or a dead dictator. The dictator seemed pretty cool about the hanging. Got me to wondering. If somebody was truly Realized whenever their time came to die, could they be afraid or would they be relaxed?
F.: First, everything associated with those events provides another opportunity to witness the relativistic results of the duality that drives the non-Realized: "life vs. death" and "good vs. bad" beliefs are generating insane behavior, the separating of persons by status, multiple funerals for a pile of physical elements, and barbaric conduct that the masses believe is quite normal conduct. In those three cases, as in all cases, what really happened is this: the consciousness manifested spontaneously and unmanifested spontaneously, but persons believe that so much more is involved. In fact, that manifesting and unmanifesting means nothing, but ego has to try to nullify the reality of net zero gain and net zero loss by making judgments about which persons have “value” and which persons are “worthless.” The fact that any persona can impact millions of people says nothing about that persona but says a great deal about the masses.
You can witness in the events you mention the ways that persons (absorbed as they are in their ego-states) are differentiating between “great people” or “notorious people”—people who are being given attention or honors that “regular people” don’t receive. The subsequent rituals—venerating corpses, chauffeuring cadavers from state-to-state in cars, using airplanes to fly carcasses back and forth across the nation, laying dead bodies out for public viewing (and for touching and for kissing in at least one of those instances)—are all rooted in the relative-existence-barbarity of fools who are trapped in their ignorance.
Note the duality as a “great man” receives a great funeral, as “a big entertainer” received a big funeral, and as a “bad man” is hanged because he was definitely “not good” and thus received a small funeral. Further, none of the three corpses will be cremated because the widespread belief is that the carrion must be glorified, conserved, and interred “in tact” so the remains of all three will be ready for their “resurrection” and for their eternal “reward or punishment.” These happenings illustrate the nonsense of dualistic, relativistic beliefs and the lunacy of adhering to rituals; furthermore, they show how attachment to concepts generates barbaric and insane behavior in a “world” that is nothing more than a series of images that persons believe are real.
Next, the answer to your question about dying is covered in detail in WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I DIE? http://floydhenderson.com/whenidie.htm . A site visitor had asked, “What happens when I die?” and the book answers his question by making clear that you cannot die since you were not born. As for your query about what would happen if one were Fully Realized, no fear would happen in regards to any “events,” including the one you mentioned. Being free of fears and desires, there would be no desire to avoid “death” and there would be desire to induce “death.” Moreover, having no fear of dying, the Realized have no fear of living; conversely, having no fear of living, the Realized have no fear of dying. Among the Realized, what happens happens, and whatever happens is merely witnessed (including the witnessing of feelings that rise and fall, which happens without the emotional intoxication that ego-states experience). Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued]
F.: First, everything associated with those events provides another opportunity to witness the relativistic results of the duality that drives the non-Realized: "life vs. death" and "good vs. bad" beliefs are generating insane behavior, the separating of persons by status, multiple funerals for a pile of physical elements, and barbaric conduct that the masses believe is quite normal conduct. In those three cases, as in all cases, what really happened is this: the consciousness manifested spontaneously and unmanifested spontaneously, but persons believe that so much more is involved. In fact, that manifesting and unmanifesting means nothing, but ego has to try to nullify the reality of net zero gain and net zero loss by making judgments about which persons have “value” and which persons are “worthless.” The fact that any persona can impact millions of people says nothing about that persona but says a great deal about the masses.
You can witness in the events you mention the ways that persons (absorbed as they are in their ego-states) are differentiating between “great people” or “notorious people”—people who are being given attention or honors that “regular people” don’t receive. The subsequent rituals—venerating corpses, chauffeuring cadavers from state-to-state in cars, using airplanes to fly carcasses back and forth across the nation, laying dead bodies out for public viewing (and for touching and for kissing in at least one of those instances)—are all rooted in the relative-existence-barbarity of fools who are trapped in their ignorance.
Note the duality as a “great man” receives a great funeral, as “a big entertainer” received a big funeral, and as a “bad man” is hanged because he was definitely “not good” and thus received a small funeral. Further, none of the three corpses will be cremated because the widespread belief is that the carrion must be glorified, conserved, and interred “in tact” so the remains of all three will be ready for their “resurrection” and for their eternal “reward or punishment.” These happenings illustrate the nonsense of dualistic, relativistic beliefs and the lunacy of adhering to rituals; furthermore, they show how attachment to concepts generates barbaric and insane behavior in a “world” that is nothing more than a series of images that persons believe are real.
Next, the answer to your question about dying is covered in detail in WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I DIE? http://floydhenderson.com/whenidie.htm . A site visitor had asked, “What happens when I die?” and the book answers his question by making clear that you cannot die since you were not born. As for your query about what would happen if one were Fully Realized, no fear would happen in regards to any “events,” including the one you mentioned. Being free of fears and desires, there would be no desire to avoid “death” and there would be desire to induce “death.” Moreover, having no fear of dying, the Realized have no fear of living; conversely, having no fear of living, the Realized have no fear of dying. Among the Realized, what happens happens, and whatever happens is merely witnessed (including the witnessing of feelings that rise and fall, which happens without the emotional intoxication that ego-states experience). Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued]
