What does it mean to have eternal life? How are we immortal?
If you choose to honour life in its infinite perfection, and for the many experiences – all of which give us incredible opportunity for knowledge, growth, healing, joy (and fun), etc. – then the experience of death is yet another experience of life.
Experiencing death through the expression of life means that we see death as the ending point of ‘this’ life experience, but certainly not the end. The majority of organized religions believe in the immortality of the soul; and of another life that follows when the embodied soul leaves our physical being.
The soul as a densely inspired grouping of matter (energy) is what returns to Source. In it’s divine state, our soul looks to reclaim all of its earthly ‘physical’ experiences, to acknowledge its sojourn as pureness and infinite love. The hopeful ideal is that the soul’s earthly time in physical form has served to heal and release past karma from previous lives spent as a physical being and to become acknowledged and integrated by the “self”. Remember the soul is both within us and a part of the universal soul (universal consciousness) and is infinite love. Our free will determines whether we allow the soul to shine outwardly from within us - its presence to be felt and integrated wholly as the energy of love – or not. (Free will whether experienced as conscious or unconscious choices exist in humans and in animals; and is always challenged by impulse, instinct, habit – and specifically in humans as ego, and the busy ‘thought’ distractions of the mind).
Does the soul consciousness know when it is “time” to leave the physical body? Can the soul experience a sense of ‘completion’ of its “work” or “objectives” in the physical world and is this related to why some people claim they feel peacefully “ready” for death in the final stages of life?
The physical body does what it is designed to do; live (thrive in fact) until it can no longer (either by our free will choice to die and with that, a refusal to care for our physical body until its uncertain demise, or in some cases, our continued mistreatment of our physical ‘home’, and the unnecessary ‘suffering’ and eventually failure of our physical condition).
If you believe in the theory that we are all energy… that “our” soul energy never ‘dies’ with our physical body but returns to ‘Source’, then all of us are never really dying. While our physical body does have an ultimate ending point; the soul is eternal. Remember that the soul (as energy) will at some later time, be embodied in another physical being. Those of us who have the ability to know we are about to ‘leave’ this world have the luxury of making some final plans, of perhaps ‘making peace’ with others, or simply preparing to go.
The soul doesn’t experience physical death – only the moments just prior to death. At ‘death’ the soul consciousness if it is prepared to leave, simply moves from the physical (body) form back into the world of energy.
In the case of animal souls, it has been said that their ‘shorter’ life span has very much to do with the fact that they have completed what experiences or ‘purpose’ they set out in search of. An animal (and most certainly a domesticated pet) is infinitely loving – something that we as humans spend a great deal of our life failing to master.
Do our animal pets contemplate the ending of their life? Do they have thoughts of “wishing” they were “healthy” or “wishing to die?” Perhaps we will never have a provable answer to these questions, although it is likely that an animal is more often than not – simply living each moment in the present – and in the best way that they can.
Animals in general… and certainly the animals I have chosen to raise, love, and care for… have always gifted me with lessons of hope, bravery, strength, and unconditional love. They remind me of the beauty in the simplest of actions, and the perfection in being present in each moment, living intentionally, and of course loving purely and intensely.
If we remain observant, animals remind us of our innate nature as: peaceful, curious, vulnerable, playful and loving. They show us the pure joy in being their innate perfection: watching, running, jumping, chasing what moves, and thriving on being alive. Sadly it is our ‘human nature’ that creates the complexities, confusion, and angst we live with, robbing us of our pure infinite potential. Our four legged loved ones also teach us about the simple actions of life and death and of simply moving to another place as ‘energy’. While most of us fear death, or at the least feel unsettled about it; animals teach us how to live in the physical world until at some point they no longer do so. They don’t contemplate the ‘ending’ of their life in the same way we do; nor do they (likely) deliberate on it.
Animals are instinctive by nature. They accept whatever is and do their ‘best’ in that moment. They do not understand labels such as ‘terminal illness’ so they continue living in whatever way possible (and as best as they can) until they can no longer do so. In many terminal conditions such as cancer, the body slowly deteriorates and the animal’s physical abilities decline until they are just a physical ‘shell’. The soul remains until the moment of physical death but the animal (and how it was known to be) certainly appears to be ‘gone’.
It remains to be seen whether all of the ways we attempt to hold off death are really humane after all.
If you knew that you were going to a better place; (if you were shown pictures, or able to watch a movie depicting what your experience would be), would it make it easier to pass, leaving behind this life? If you were able to remain present and to live each moment, then you likely would not spend much time contemplating what was coming. Your attention would remain on how you were living right now.
Perhaps the most significant thing death teaches us is how to live…how to free ourselves of the unneeded worry and suffering and instead – thrive, enjoy, honour the life we have been given. Remember all of our experiences are experiences the soul yearns for.
Namaste!
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An added afterthought and update:
This is what we want to hold onto; we want to enjoy the privilege of having the physical moments of: holding, hugging, touching, kissing, and feeling the kinesthetic luxury of being spirit embodied. We absolutely want to hold onto this physical life and all of its gracious pleasures for as long as we can – even if the quality of our life has changed or deteriorated.
We can also influence a soul’s decision to leave by not wanting the physical being to go. The idea of ‘giving permission’ for the animal or human to die is a way of energetically detaching – of gently releasing the soul from the physical body – particularly in cases where the soul energy is ‘hanging on’ for the sake of others.
