Do We Need to Die in Order to Experience Death?

One of the most powerful experiences in my life was gaining the insight to answer that question. But the answer was not a thought-out deliberated one; it wasn’t a debated philosophical one, nor was it a faithful religious one from the depths of my subconscious. It was an experience that struck to the core of my bones and resonated throughout my flesh. It was an experience from which there is no return, no debate, no questions; it was a reality that I later called “lemon-consciousness.”

You don’t need lemons. The same story has been told countless times and has been related to just about everything from crows to streams to insects. Mystic tales are filled with different triggers that produced the same result. What result you ask? You can absolutely, experience death while living. How? By piercing through the ego shell and into the experience of spirit-universal substance.

A famous Zen koan says, All things return to the One. What does the One return to? In reality, there is no need for anything to return to anything else. It is already there! We are already there! Yes, right there in you! A simple metaphor that I love to tell is that right now, in this moment, we are all in the ocean of spirit. Since we are in the ocean, then we all are supposedly wet. Right?

But we FORGET our wetness, because our ego’s shell makes us into a separate drop of water in the ocean, instead of what we really are which is the ocean itself. Our illusion is that we are “dry” drops. We remain dry drops as long as we are stuck in our ego shells. When we pierce the ego shell, we “experience” that we were never really separate from the ocean and that we were always wet-an insight. But we forgot!

Where’s does the One return to? So now when you remember-like when you were born-you realize that there is nowhere you need to go. We were here all along. There is nowhere to return to. We are the universal ocean from which all life came. When you experience that oceanic feeling and it doesn’t matter what sparked it; a lemon, a crow, an insect, you know that death exists only within the life of the ego shell, the bones, and the flesh…

One of our favorite family movies is: Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) which is about Captain Kirk and his crews mission to save Earth from an alien probe, Kirk and his crew go back in time to retrieve the only beings who can communicate with it, humpback whales. Let’s drop in on an interesting conversation between McCoy (the doctor) and Spock.

You see, in the previous movie Spock died and was buried on the Planet Genesis where he was reborn along with the entire planet through an experimental life-generating device.

McCoy: Perhaps, we could cover a little philosophical ground. Life

[pause]

McCoy: Death

[pause]

McCoy: Life.

[pause]

McCoy: Things of that nature.

Spock: I did not have time on Vulcan to review the philosophical disciplines.

McCoy: C\’mon, Spock, it\’s me, McCoy. You really have gone where no man\’s gone before. Can\’t you tell me what it felt like?

Spock: It would be impossible to discuss the subject without a common frame-of-reference.

McCoy: You\’re joking!

Spock: A joke

[pause]

Spock: is a story with a humorous climax.

McCoy: You mean I have to die to discuss your insights on death?

Spock: Forgive me, Doctor. I am receiving a number of distress calls.

McCoy: I don\’t doubt it.

Fortunately for me, the distress calls have tapered off significantly. If you want to read more, see chapter 25, No Mind No Death, in my book, The Ten Paradoxes: The Science of Where’s My Zen?

If you’re seriously interested in learning the technique of mindfulness you can contact me to schedule a free seminar at your company, private group, or attend one of my scheduled seminars, see http://wheresmyzen.com/seminars.

You can also download one of my books in PDF format for FREE from my site above or go to Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble for a Kindle, Nook, or Hardcover version. The short version of the technique appears on page 49-56 in Where’s My Zen? and a full detailed version appears on pages 386-430 in The Ten Paradoxes: The Science of Where’s My Zen?

Blessings,

Paul Harrison AIA

aka Master Nomi

Architect, Author, Creator of the Zen Advantage Program™ (ZAP)

Paul Harrison, AIA, is the author of the books Where\’s My Zen? and The Ten Paradoxes: The Science of Where\’s My Zen?, written under the pen name Master Nomi. An architect by trade, Paul has had a passion for Zen for the past 30 years. Go to http://www.wheresmyzen.com

Paul Harrison, AIA, is the author of the books Where\’s My Zen? and The Ten Paradoxes: The Science of Where\’s My Zen?, written under the pen name Master Nomi. An architect by trade, Paul has had a passion for Zen for the past 30 years. Go to http://www.wheresmyzen.com

Author Bio: Paul Harrison, AIA, is the author of the books Where\’s My Zen? and The Ten Paradoxes: The Science of Where\’s My Zen?, written under the pen name Master Nomi. An architect by trade, Paul has had a passion for Zen for the past 30 years. Go to http://www.wheresmyzen.com

Category: Death
Keywords: death, Zen, mindfulness, spirituality, enlightenment, Star Trek, advice, happiness, self-help,