The Prophet - On Death
Then Almitra spoke and said: ‘We would ask now of death.’
And the Prophet replied:
‘You can only begin to understand the secrets of death
When you know that first and foremost you are a spirit and soul,
And start to look for them in the heart of life itself.
You will then become aware that in truth there is no death,
Only transformations when each one of you,
Time and again at the end of yet another lifetime,
Returns into another state of consciousness.
Birds are messenger of the world of spirit or light,
Your true home, from where you once came
And to which you return at the end of every earthly lifetime.
You have been granted the gift of another sojourn on the earthly plane,
So that you may grow in wisdom and understanding,
And with the passing of time evolve into
A seeker of God’s wisdom and truth, a human owl.
On the Earth owls represent symbols of wisdom,
But there are two types of these birds.
In the early stages of your education in the school of earthly life
You are like one of those who can only fly and hunt at night,
Because their eyesight is very poor in daylight.
However, as you proceed on your evolutionary pathway
That in the end takes you back into
The conscious awareness of your true nature and
Your oneness with God and all life,
You become ever more evolved and gradually grow into
A likeness of the second type of owl, who can see
Equally well by day and night.
Because you are constantly learning something from your experiences,
You are growing wiser all the time, until eventually there
Comes a moment when you discover that you are beginning
To find what you are looking for as well in the darkness of Earth life,
As you do on the other side of the veil of consciousness.
In the past this separated your two worlds like a curtain as much for you,
As it does to this day for many of your siblings in the human family,
While for you it is ever more disappearing.
For as long as you remained trapped in the initial darkness
Of the dungeon of the ignorance of an earthly existence,
And remained ensnared by the belief that this state
Was your only reality and that this was all there is to life,
You could not see beyond the end of your nose
And it was impossible for you to perceive
The vast horizons of the higher and highest dimensions of life.
For as long as you stayed on that evolutionary level,
You found it hard to grasp and unveil
The mysteries of life and death, darkness and light.
To enable you to understand the spirit of death,
The Divine spark in you first had to awaken,
So that your heart could open wide unto all other aspects of life,
Until finally you grasped that in truth
Life and death are one,
The same as a river and the sea,
Into which it pours itself, are one.
Your Creator deeply and permanently imprinted
The silent knowledge of the higher and highest aspects
Of life, your true home, into the memories of your soul.
From there they continue to surface in your hopes and dreams
In a longing and yearning for the world you once came from,
With none of the trouble and strife of Earth’s harsh environment.
Such dreams lead you to your highest aspirations.
Nurture and care for them, so they can light your way home.
Like a seed that patiently waits beneath the snow
For the arrival of spring, your soul has never given up the
Hope of one day returning into that existence.
Trust these dreams, for they are the key that
In due course will unlock the gates of Eternity for you.
And what about your fear of death?
It can be likened to the trembling of a shepherd,
Who stands before his King, waiting that he should lay
His hand upon him in honour.
Is the shepherd not joyful beneath his trembling,
Although he knows that he will soon be wearing his King’s mark?
But even so, before the event he is more mindful of his trembling
Than of the gift that awaits him.
And what is ceasing to breathe the air of the Earth,
But the freeing of your soul from this planet’s restless emotional tides,
So that it may rise, expand and seek God unencumbered
By a physical body and the concerns of Earth life?
Only when you drink from the river of the silence of
The world of light, your soul truly sings.
And only when you reach the top of the spiritual mountain
The real ascent begins.
And only when your physical body has been returned
To Mother Earth, to which it belongs,
Will you once more know for sure
What your role in the great dance of life has been all along.
As one of God’s beloved children of the Earth,
You are a spark of the Divine,
An immortal being who has all Eternity to look forward to,
Filled with ever more new explorations and fresh learning,
Safely guided and protected by God and the Angels.
Whether you believe in them or not, at any given time,
They will forever be around you, with you and part of you.
From ‘The Prophet’ by Kahlil Gibran 1883-1931
Lebanese/American poet
Edited by Aquarius
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The above is part of ‘Comfort For The Bereaved’.
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‘Comfort For The Bereaved’
