What keeps up on the Earth? Gravity. Had it not been for gravity, we would have shot up towards the sky. This possibility is equally available to everyone. The way to the sky is open to all in the same manner at any time and at any point of the earth. It is true that we cannot overcome gravity by our bodies, but is that also true for what’s inside our bodies? And what happens with it when the bodies die? Does it also die?

Some time ago I watched a science-fiction film in which people found a way to escape from the deadly conditions of life on the earth by setting up stations for survivors in another galaxy where everything was the same as the earth except that there was no sky and there was artificial light. The possibility of flying up into the sky was not available there and this was clearly seen in the life of the main heroine who had discovered the formula for the salvation of mankind from the ecological catastrophe but died at the end of the film. She had found a way to preserve life, but had not found a way to avoid death. And although she hadn’t died at 10 or 20, she died at about 100.

In a way, it doesn’t matter much whether one dies at 10 or 20 or even at 100: one does die! It would matter if one didn’t die ― ever!  Nobody likes death and nobody lives with the expectation that he is going to die ― so much so that we do not even believe that will happen. Any time I have been close to death because of an accident or an illness and I have got away with it, I felt immense relief. But any time that has happened I have also known, and I know now that there will come a time when I will not get away with it.

That doesn’t mean that we should constantly live with the fear of death. But it does mean that we should not live as if we would never die. We should live as truthfully to reality as we can. We are born without wanting it and we die without wanting it, but we live to a different extent the way we want it. The fact that we are born and die without being asked, but in between we can live as we like, speaks more in favor of our having to bear the consequences for the way we have lived than not having to bear any consequences at all, the more so as we constantly bear some of the consequences of our choices even now, like the effects of the food we eat every day or the effects of our moral preferences like being honest or dishonest or being loyal or disloyal. The question is: Does this freedom bear upon what happens with us after death? And does anything happen at all?

Let us suppose that nothing happens. One dies and this is the end. What happens to the visible person, the body, happens also to the invisible person, the soul: Both stop to exist. The end of the one who has lived as an angel and the end of the one who has lived as a villain is the same: Both vanish into nothingness. Well, if I were a villain, I would profit from that hypothesis. I can live as badly as I like (lying, stealing and killing) and have as much pleasure as I want, and I will never bear any consequences for the evil things I’ve done both before and after my death. But if I were an angel, I would not profit at all: I would suffer all kinds of evil like violence, exploitation, persecution, pain and even death, but I would not receive any reward or compensation ― only loss. Having said this, it is not surprising why so many people choose to live as villains ― being a hero is senseless and useless. It is surprising however why some people choose to live as angels.  Of course, real life is much more complex and most people have different degrees of the villain and the angel in them but this is a topic for another discussion.

Let us suppose now that man’s existence does not end with death. The question in that case is: What happens after that? The answers to it are many and they often contradict each other. So, which of them is the right one? Well, there is only one sky and only one earth here and we have only one choice: the purity and endlessness of the skies or the mud and the limitations of the earth. Any particle of evil in the soul is like the mud of the earth which ― if there is no water ― dries up and hardens as those parts of the earth that make up a wasteland. The more the mud and the less the water to dilute it or wash it away, the larger and barer the wasteland. I believe this is the future of the one who lives like a villain now after he dies. He will continue to walk along the road he has chosen to walk now, and this will make him be like those parts of the earth that illustrate the state of things lacking water here. Unlike the angel who, having tasted the purity of the sky now, will continue to ascend and partake of other spheres of infinity then, prompted and shown by the galaxies here.

How can we get rid of mud? The answers to this question are also many and contradictory, but all of them are verifiable. The bad thing is that if one tests the wrong one, one will have to pay the price of testing it. The good thing is that one can give up testing it, having paid the price. The problem is that one may like the wrong answer and never get to the right one, but the good news is that the opportunity to try again is always here, the way the sky is always here and equally accessible for all who are still alive. The truth is as close and obvious as the sky. We only have to acknowledge it and accept it. It will do the job it is meant to do. The same is true for the lie. It will also do the job it is meant to do. It’s as simple as that.

Lil

12/05/2017