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| ~ ∞ ~ What Is Life? 3/3 – Awaken the Living Awareness Within ~ ∞ ~ |
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Before we move on to the next chapter, we would do well to summarize what this chapter has taught us about life. In this chapter, we have seen how we as human beings are always eager to pin everything down, categorize, label, define, explain, classify, and prescribe that which we don’t understand; and that, of course, we do in the hopes that someday we may understand what we don’t yet understand.
As such, we have traditionally defined life to be just some “physically” organized structures that are able to grow, develop and reproduce – “living” organisms aiming towards evolution. Thus, most scientists seem to agree that all living things share certain basic characteristics like organization, reproduction, growth and development, homeostasis and evolution.
However, we should keep in mind that these, too, are but mental abstractions and approximations – not actuality; which brings us to our first conclusion: in spite of all our efforts and extremely detailed and fine-tuned descriptions – we have failed to define life. This brings about the question: Could the reason be that there was never anything to define in the first place?
Here we should challenge ourselves by asking the question: Does life really exist at all? Is there any such thing as life, or have we just invented it as an abstraction to represent something we don’t quite yet understand? Well, the honest truth is that the mission to define life is in many ways – futile, for the simple reason that the materialistic view is incomplete.
Having said that, it is important to emphasize the following: the scientific definition of life is valid only in its context, which leads us to realize that life is indeed a concept that we invented, and hence it doesn’t reflect the actuality of existence. In other words, what we call “life” is merely our failed attempt to capture the essence of our being, which in its deepest core – is pure awareness.
And so you see, one should not make the mistake of confusing the idea of a thing with the thing itself; or in this case, the appearance with the essence. You see, the Essence of Life is not the same as the description or explanation of it. So, can we therefore conclude that what we call “life” is but a facade?
Against this backdrop, we can see that what constitutes our existence is something beyond words, symbols, numbers, formulas, definitions, descriptions and explanations. The aforementioned methods are essentially tools by which humans convey information to one another, which is another way of saying that all of these methods are extensions of language; and language, in and of itself, always, ultimately, fails to describe the actuality of existence.
So in this sense, there’s a certain irony in that we have to use words to explain why words are so limited; the problem arises when we start to confuse descriptions and explanations with the actuality. And with this, we arrive at an astonishing conclusion: recognizing life as a concept would free us from the old way of seeing and lead us in a direction to discover a completely new way of approaching our existence.
Therefore, when we ask the question, “What Is Life?” we should want to know what Life is at its highest form beyond mere chemistry, DNA, RNA, proteins, enzymes, and heredity. It is well known throughout the world that Life in its deepest core is Spirit, or just simply pure Awareness; it is active, sentient, feeling, thinking, purposive, valuing, social, other-respecting, relating and caring.
Hence, it goes without saying that if we really want to know what Life is, we should start our search within ourselves. It is clear that if we pay close attention, we find that deep within each and every one of us, there is, indeed – a Life Force that permeates everything in the universe. However, this Vital Spark of Life becomes obvious to us only when the organism is imbued with purpose and self-regulation, as is a living plant or a human being.
In this chapter, we have talked about life and concluded that what we call “life” is but a vague definition of a finite. Life – emphasis on the capital letter, on the other hand, is something completely different – it is more like a living Spiritual Organism than anything else: it learns and gains experience by expressing itself through its many emanations – including us human beings.
From this perspective, all of life is essentially one gigantic ocean of life; one gigantic being of all beings; one gigantic Life of all lives. It is only our self-grasping ignorance which cuts up the ocean of life into discrete, independent beings that are somehow separate from one another. In other words, we grasp at self and other as being distinct and separate beings – but in actuality, we are all part of the same Living Life.
One last thing before we move on: considering all the aforementioned, one should be inclined to ask the following question: If life isn’t what we think it is, maybe death isn’t what we imagine it to be, either? Here we should challenge ourselves by asking an intriguing question: What is the opposite of death?
Most people would probably say that it’s life, but when you really see clearly – you cannot help but arrive at the conclusion: the opposite of death is birth; both are gateways through which Life passes in and out of time in physical existence.
Life Force that moves through us is the same Eternal Essence that moves through every living being, including trees and plants – Living Life expressing itself through all life – constantly finding the best and the most efficient ways for life to grow, flourish and thrive. Life Force is beginningless, which means that Life has always been, always is, and always will be.
In other words, death is but a temporary putting away of the physical expression of existence by the Soul or Spirit, which is the real “I” in all of us. This “I” is the center of Life in each and every one of us; it is the unchanging Eternal Truth in us; the real “I” in all of us. When the individual arrives at this realization, their whole perception irrevocably changes.
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~ ॐ ~ Sambodhi Padmasamadhi ~ ∞ ~
Get the Book: Awaken the Living Awareness Within – Discover the Keys to Happiness, Inner Peace & Harmony
~ ॐ ~ Sambodhi Padmasamadhi ~ ∞ ~
Get the Book: Awaken the Living Awareness Within – Discover the Keys to Happiness, Inner Peace & Harmony
[ Click » here « to read the next part: In Search for the Meaning of Life (1/2) – The Essence of Life: Part II ]
