Are You Ready?

People tend to avoid the subject of death, just as they avoid the life that is coming to them in the present by chasing the illusions of their minds, playing mind games, hiding in a fantasy dreamworld. When you ask someone if they fear death, if they are ready to die, you could receive one of many responses.

Maybe the response would be "I still have a long time before I will die." The truth is, you do not know how much time you have before you die. Your heart could stop right now. Right now, your body is undergoing countless processes to keep you alive that you are not even consciously aware of. Is it you who keeps your heart beating and your body functioning? No, the heart pumps blood without any help from "you." Is it you who controls your breathing while you are semi-unconscious as you sleep through the night? No, the lungs breathe air until they cannot breathe air anymore, without any intervention of "me."

Maybe the response would be more laid back, such as "Well, you gotta go sometime." You aren't going to die "sometime." You aren't going to die in the future. You die in the present. Death happens in the present, just like everything else you experience.

Maybe you would get a response that is more assertive and defensive, such as "I am not afraid of death." When you get this response, you can be sure that the person is either lying, or that they haven't truly become aware of their impending death, whether they realize it or not. Right now, take a deep breath, and exhale all the air out. Imagine that you will not get another breath. Don't let yourself take one until you truly realize that there will be a place and a time where you will not receive another breath, and it will happen in the present. Again, you have no control over when your last breath will be, no control over when your heart stops beating. Every breath you take is one closer to that last breath.

Then, of course, you will get the religious responses, which usually fall in line with one of the potential responses explained above. The most important moment in your life, the moment of truth, is when you truly realize death is upon you, just as everyone does. Everything that is not true, not real, an illusion, will be stripped away, including your beliefs, your conceptualizations, your stories, and your expectations. "You," or what you think is you, your ego, your identity, will be completely shattered. As "you" die, thoughts cease to be as the neurons stop firing in your brain, and the brain is deprived of oxygen. The mind ceases to function, as the mind is just bioelectric activity in the brain, and there you are; your true self (receiver of life) "face to face," completely aware of the present moment before you go completely unconscious, and it is impossible to be conscious of being unconscious.

No shining, winged angels are going to fly down from the sky and carry you away to the pearly gates. No bearded man wearing a sheet and sandals is going to take your hand. Anything you try to imagine will happen, anything you try to believe, will not happen. Beliefs, faith, hope, and dreams are fantasies, the opposite of reality (true life). The experience of ceasing to breathe and your body shutting down will be beyond your imagination, because it will be real, and it will force you into the present, because you will realize that you are not going to be able to take anything with you, not your possessions, not your beliefs, not your memories. There will be intense confusion and fear as the illusion is stripped away. If you haven't tried to seek the truth of life up to this point, you will realize that nothing else you did in your life really mattered, and you will wish that you had thought of it before. You will die in sheer confusion and surprise without any of your illusory fantasies to hide behind. The mind will no longer in the present with you, blocking out life. Death will be the most real experience you ever have if you spend your whole life lost in fantasy, in an imaginary dreamworld. "You" will cease to exist, but "you" never really existed.

I am using "you" in quotations for a reason, because death is not the end of life; death is the end of "you." However, "you" do not die, because "you," or what you think is you (your ego/mind), never really was alive in the first place. This "reality" that you have created your whole life, which includes your identity, is not real, because nothing the mind creates is real. The mind cannot create anything real; it can only manipulate what is. Again, only the life you receive through your senses in the present is real, true life, reality. You are not your identity. Your true self = mirror of life.

You will die physically, and this identity (your mind) that you hold onto will cease to exist, because it is part of your body, stored memories in your brain. Physical death is real; it is in life and a necessary part of life, and it cannot be avoided. The whole purpose of your body is to be a support system for your senses, which allow you to receive and experience life. Physical death is when your body can no longer support your consciousness (what you are). You cease to breathe, and your brain, and thus your mind, is compromised. The physical body, the support system for your senses, will decompose and be recycled by Nature as the worms eat the flesh or the ashes are spread upon the earth. However, your true self, best described as consciousness, awareness, nothingness, spirit, is not physical, thus what you are (consciousness) does not end at death.

Immortality:

Death does not exist from your perspective, the only perspective that matters to you.

As was said previously, "it is impossible to be conscious of being unconscious." Life is continuous and never-ending from your perspective and experience, because you cannot experience anything other than life. You are conscious of life now, thus you are conscious of life eternally, because now is all that is. You are the blank slate on which life is written on, the infinite field in which the game of life is played on, a receiver of life, nothingness. Everything in the universe is connected by "empty space," nothingness, from the space between the electrons and nuclei of atoms to the space between stars. You (consciousness) are connected with the entire universe, here, there, everywhere.

If you look at the big picture, you can see for yourself the tendency of Nature to repeat itself, to go in cycles as it strives for balance, equilibrium. Look around you. Do you see death anywhere in Nature? All I see is energy changing form, cycles, rebirth. The seasons changing, the weather patterns shifting, the tide crashing in and pulling out,the sun rising and setting, plants photosynthesizing, converting the energy from the sun. Death is an illusion; there is only constant change, constant rebirth. Life is eternal. The only evidence you really have is that you were born into this life. Physical death will come, but you will be reborn. Being born happens, or you would not be here now. Physical death is consciousness ending in one body and beginning in another. Death and birth are one event (rebirth) from your perspective, because you cannot be conscious of being unconscious. You are immortal, because it is impossible for you not to be. (For more on "immortality," see page 2 of The Present at Truth Contest)

Fear of Death:

People are afraid of death, consciously and subconsciously, because they are attached to this illusory conceptualization of ego, of self, of identity. This fear causes people to subconsciously avoid death, and because death is part of life, people are avoiding life, missing the mark. People are dead to life, spiritually dead, because they miss out on life in the present, all that is, by blocking out reality with the mind; with useless knowledge, faith and belief, and religious myths. As Mark Twain said, "The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time." The only way to be ready for death, to overcome death, is to get into life completely, to overcome the illusion of "you" and embrace reality, embrace oneness. You must die to your ego and be reborn to true life before your body can no longer support your consciousness. You give birth to yourself as a new being in your current body. You are reborn to life. You just die to your mind, because it never really was alive in the first place. To live truly, you must die to your ego/mind.

People are currently living as their false, mortal mind-self, and they need to do the exact opposite and live as their immortal, spiritual-self, their true self.

When you live as your true self, as a spiritual being, as a mirror of life, you are constantly reborn, because life in the present is always new. To people living in the mind, nothing is more certain than death. To those living as spiritual beings, nothing is more certain than life.

Just remember, life is not your life; life is life. Life does not belong to you, yet the present is all for you. This body is not your body; it is energy in form. Everything your mind creates is impermanent, including "you" and anything associated with this identity that has formed over the years by interacting with the minds of your family, peers, society, and the collective mind of humanity. All of your memories, conceptualizations, expectations, and labels will be compromised when you physically die, along with the mind itself and everything else it creates, including "you."

Your physical death will likely be very painful, and also livid with fear, because it will be beyond your imagination, literally. You must make pain and fear your friends. Your mind uses pain and fear to control you, to perpetuate the illusions it creates, to block out life. You must change the mind from your enemy to your companion, from deception to truth. You will still fear death in this lifespan, but the fear will not cause you to hide behind the illusions of the mind and escape life; the fear will be used as a cue to be with life here now. However, you will not be surprised when death comes, because by seeking the truth and getting to know life, you will be ready. Death sucks, and you will try to avoid pain and death, but when you cannot, you will not block it out, because it doesn't work anyway. You must have the ability to accept life in its totality without picking and choosing to be ready for death. You must have the ability to be fulfilled independent of what happens in the environment to truly be free, to transcend death.

The key to being prepared for death is to get into life completely, to die to your mind and transcend "yourself," to understand and live in the truth and the life before you die physically. Life gives itself to you unconditionally, and you have to surrender to life to be filled with life, to get to know true life, to be familiar with life in the present. You must be like nothing (your true self) to receive everything (life). If you do see the truth and get to know the life before you die physically, even though experiencing death is beyond your imagination, you will know that whatever happens is life, and you will be at home with it in the present.

If you get into life completely, you transcend fear and death; you become eternal life. You must see the truth and realize your true self. Up until now, most people could not know the truth, could not see their true self (consciousness) in relation to the natural harmony of the universe (balance), could not see true life and how the mind blocks it out.

To let life in, to truly live in the present, to get to know true life, you have to know the truth. Knowledge of the truth physically changes the structure of your brain and thus your environment. Your inner-environment changes as your brain is reprogrammed for the present. Everything starts with the truth, including the transformation of your mind, by which you will begin to live your life as an immortal, spiritual being, your true self.

To know the truth, you must seek, define, and spread the truth. Truth before life. There is no other way.

At the beginning of each day, remind yourself you are going to die. Imagine you are going to die that day, because one day, you will be right. Most people take every breath for granted until that last one, when they realize they will not get another one. To be ready for death/birth, you must live in that last breath, as your breathing only happens in the present. You must spread those moments of presence right before death/birth throughout your whole life.

You are going to die, and death happens in the present.
Are you ready?

The Kingdom of God is Present

LET US ALL UNITE

To come together, we must change our perspective, shift from the perspective of the mind which thrives in separation, to our spiritual-perspective, where we see everyone truly, including oneself, as a receiver of life. Therefore, we must change our minds to embrace Oneness. To change our minds, we must seek, define, and spread the truth. To change the world, we must change our minds. Change starts with us, as our world is just a reflection of us. "We must become the change we want to see in our world." - Gandhi

As you seek, define, and spread the truth, it goes subconscious, so that everything your mind creates becomes a cue to let life in, to be present. As a result of taking control of our minds and spreading the truth, building the truth in the collective unconscious, our collective mind, we give the rest of humanity a better chance to wake up. We must try to save others to save ourselves, but ultimately, we are only responsible for seeing the truth and the life for ourselves. As more people wake up, it will get easier to live without the mind, and it will snowball, but until then, people that see the truth have to spread it to keep the ball rolling. We must become prophets of our generation and spread the truth of life. With our love, we can save the world, save our Earth. If enough people do it, there will be an explosion of spiritual growth, of the truth and the life, and there will be a global awakening of humanity in the blink of an eye.

The Kingdom of God is at hand. "Heaven is inside you and all around you." Only when we see God/Life/Love (all that is) as perfectly balanced and fair will we be able to transform our minds and reprogram them for the present without apprehension about the future and/or dependence on the past. As the mind fades into the background and life gets bigger, we just "back into" that surrendering, child-like state by becoming our senses, receiving and reflecting the life that comes directly to us from all directions in the Present. With the truth, we can change our minds, transform into spiritual beings, receive and reflect life without any mental intrusions, live for today, live life in peace, share all the world, and build a heaven on Earth. Everything starts with the truth, and that is why it is so important to spread it.

TRUTH BEFORE LIFE
HONESTY BEFORE LOVE
TREE OF KNOWLEDGE BEFORE TREE OF LIFE
IT WILL NOT, DOES NOT, CANNOT HAPPEN ANY OTHER WAY

We must seek, define, and spread the truth.
If not us, who? If not now, when?
No Other Way
NOW

"Better get yourself together darling, join the human race."

We, the human race, are taking the next step in our evolution, and you've got a ticket to ride.

"I hope someday you'll join us, and the world will be as one."