Physical death is the mystical experience we will all have and it can be seen as being as sacred as physical birth. Death brings a release from our dualistic life, taking us into a new form of existence. Mysticism regards this transformation as one of the most sacred and elevating experiences we will ever have, because it opens up a greater space for spiritual existence.
To the mystic, life can be seen as a kind of dreaming. While we dream we have little to no remembrance of our previous dreams, or of our waking self. But with the dream self’s death, we become transformed into a being who remembers experiencing all our prior dreams. Mystics remind us that there is only one true life. Our physical death returns our spiritual essence to a divine state of oneness with the universe. The death of our physical body is the only way that our true spiritual essence can return to divine unity and continue moving forward with its mystical path.
Deeper mystic realizations of our true nature show it to be birthless and deathless. Death is simply a shifting of the consciousness’ focus to a new state. To the Mystic there is no death or birth of our true essential self, because our spiritual essence is indestructible and ever present. The divine self, or soul, is resurrected into each new state as a part its mystic journey. This idea of resurrection is seen a fundamental part of a soul’s journey and is a mystical theme common in many cultures.
Mystics view their physical lives as a time of stewardship for the soul that inhabits their physical body. The mystic works to elevate and rectify his soul during its embodiment, by attempting to resolve its karmas. Karmas are attached to each soul and ride along with it on its mystical path. As the physical embodiment of the soul, we must work through our karmas to reach our mystical destination, and those same karmas are what keep us from reaching the end of the mystical path.
Mysticism shows that as long as we are in the maelstrom of karma we cannot have deep mystical experiences. Powerful emotional karmas prevent us from achieving full mediation or spiritual enlightenment. Therefore, karma becomes the work that needs to be completed to see oneness and the perfection of everything. Until our karmas are resolved or purified we don’t have mystical experiences, we just have karmic experiences.
Featured in this series: Fr. Richard Rohr, Timothy Freke, Rabbi Aubrey Glazer of Congregation Beth Shalom, Mary Reed, Lama Palden Drolma, Paramacharya Sadasivanathaswami at the Hindu Monastery in Kauai, Dr. Carol Weyland Conner Murshida of Sufism Reoriented, Sufi Hadi Paul Reicherz, Shankina Reinhertz, Pamela Desvernie, Itara O’connell, and Guy Douglas.
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