I had to really stop and think about this. For whatever reason, life and death are always paired. Yet gestation and death are the natural regenerative processes that life goes through in all its forms, but they are not life. Death is not a cessation of life but a rebirth of it in new form.
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Whenever any kind of deep loss occurs in your life--such as loss of possessions, your home, a close relationship; or loss of your reputation, job or physical abilities--something inside you dies. You feel diminished in your sense of who you are. There may also be a certain disorientation. "Without this...who am I?"
When a form that you had unconsciously identified with as part of yourself leaves you or dissolves, that can be extremely painful. It leaves a hole, so to speak, in the fabric of your existence.
When this happens, don't deny or ignore the pain or the sadness that you feel. Accept that it is there. Beware of your mind's tendency to construct a story around that loss in which you are assigned the role of victim. Fear, anger, resentment, or self-pity are the emotions that go with that role. Then become aware of what lies behind those emotions as well as behind the mind-made story: that hole, that empty space. Can you face and accept that strange sense of emptiness? If you do, you may find that it is no longer a fearful place. You may be surprised to find peace emanating from it.
Whenever death occurs, whenever a life form dissolves, God, the formless and unmanifested, shines through the opening left by the dissolving form. That is why the most sacred thing in life is death. That is why the peace of God can come to you through the contemplation and acceptance of death.
selection and quote from Stillness Speaks by Eckhart Tolle
1 comment:
The Shane Claiborne book is great. I read it a few months ago. It was what got me on the radical kick. Have you finished it yet?
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