Recently I read a sentence which took under 5 seconds to read. I spent the best part of 8 hours reflecting on it.
Slowly I am reading through Wonders of Spiritual Unfoldment by John Butler a biographical meander through the life John has lived – well worth the effort. So to the sentence – ‘ For we are neither our bodies, nor our thoughts – we just inhabit them for a while to go through life’. In part this elevates the question, long debated, could we be separate from our thoughts? Is it possible that the mystery of finding the essential you is beyond thought because we discover it by another means?
If I was reading and not writing this thought I might say ‘amateur philosopher trying his hand at defining existentialism…’ However there is a valid point to ponder here. We are traveling towards the inevitability of what we have named death. For the most part this is a subject few wrestle with because it feels and looks so permanent, final, concluding. Science has, in part, been valued over philosophy or religion because of the sense of certainty and over use of the words, fact proven beyond doubt. Many have reasoned that there is no conflict between faith and science other than our unwillingness to embrace acceptance of both as looking in different directions. I can’t see the south end of my road by looking west.
In recent weeks it has been refreshing to hear great scientists in connection with Covid19 use the phrase ‘the science is evolving’. Is it possible that ‘the science’ moves because, as the idea in the sentence of John Butler above suggests, we study our body or matter, and what we study with is our thoughts; our transient thoughts – a vehicle for travel not a fixed position? Even in science there are fewer certainties than we would like! There is no doubt that we are travelling from birth to death and doing so in a body and mind unique and individual in expression. There is no doubt that we can build on the knowledge and discoveries of others – how boring the world would be without. There is no doubt that humanity continues to advance in understanding the world we live in – it’s great. Yet so often we resist the idea that death can be anything but the end because we can’t see or measure beyond it – we can be flat-earthers on this subject!
In 1916 Robert Mackenna, yes I read old books, wrote in The Adventure of Death ‘ very few , in any generation, have devoted to the fact of death the amount of reflection they dedicated to the every-day problems of life. For death is, they flatter themselves, a thing remote, whilst the present moment of life is urgent with duties’.
It is an act of faith to ponder, meditate or reflect not on death as a final end, the closing of life, but a continued journey. It is an act of faith to reach in and explore death’s doorway. People of faith find ourselves using words and the language around death that create poor descriptions of what some would say, is to them, a great certainty of life beyond death. We fumble with the word spirit because whilst there is an understanding that we are more than body and thoughts we use body and thoughts to express that which is ‘other’ to them.
I’ve no answer that will satisfy you today only the suspicion that, were you to join the millions of folk around the world each day who pause, and steal of life a quiet hour, perhaps a part of you, a part you never knew, will become evident. One day my body will stop and my brain function will cease but in faith I expect to continue. My description today of that continuation comes best from the writings of John a friend of Jesus who wrote ‘There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed’. My sense is that it is possible even now to glimpse the space John speaks of but we can’t see it with the eyes of the body or think our way in!
Rob Wykes 