Death Is Not A Failure

When we fail to see beyond death, then death appears to us as a failure. But death is no more than another transformation of being essentially no different than the transformation that already occures from one moment to the next.

Who you were before you read the above paragraph is dead. And, who you are now as you read these words is a new creature. Yes, you have much in common with your former self, and yet for all the characteristics that you share with that other manifestation of yourself you can never ever be that person again. Your minute-old self is as dead as your now-self will be a thousand years from now.

So, you died. But is this then failure? Of course not. It is only transformation. And when the transformation from one moment to the next becomes so drastic that we no longer are able to psychologically make the connection between the two selves, such as when the body dies, that does not mean that the connection is lost either.

Who we are, the “I am” at the core of our being, is what connects all life, and all things together. When we realize this we become immune to the illusion of death. When we can see the stream of consciousness that runs continuously through all life, then death becomes a respected servant, and no longer a source of fear or apprehension.

This is what it means to put death beneath our feet. We see that death is a necessary part of eternal life, not our enemy at all. To defeat death is not to destroy it, it is only to see it for what it is; a necessary part of our journey through eternity; another transformation, nothing more. And certainly not a failure.

In fact, death, like defeat, will only make what dies stronger. This is why killing a killer makes no sense. It only makes the killer – that is, the reason the killer became a killer – stronger. No person exists without a cause. And killing a person without understanding their cause only strengthens it. To understand the cause is to gain power over it. And the only way to understanding is to seek its reflection inside of ourselves. Killing the killer is like smashing the mirror because you do not like what you see there. It is the failure to recognize yourself, the only real failure that can ever happen.