I’d like to explain the larger view of what happens to us after this life, based on the book, Holistic Health through Macrobiotics, by Michio Kushi and Edward Esko, published in 1993, pages 116-23 and 134. Then I’d like to give an update on my husband Sheldon, who is making his transition.
The distinction between life and death is whether or not energy is charging the body. To be alive means that the chakras, spiritual channels, meridians and meridian branches are actively charged with smoothly flowing energy.
When the spiritual channel and chakras are not receiving any charge, this is the state we call death. Death means there is no electro-magnetic charge running through the body, so our systems do not function anymore. We can no longer hear, see, feel or react.
The concept of death exists only for people who assume that existence is limited to the physical world. Holistic understanding considers not only the visible, physical aspects of our being. It also takes into account the invisible, spiritual aspects. The human body is composed of seven layers of a huge spiral that traverses both the physical and vibrational worlds.
Time and space are a small part of infinity. They are, in reality, the product of our relative imagination. All human desires arise from the perception of time and space, gaining strength as we develop inward toward the physical body. When we separate from the material and sensorial bodies–the first two layers of the spiral of infinity–some activities like individual feelings cease. Five additional layers are still there, and in certain aspects life after death is more active than life in the physical world.
The third layer envelops the first two and is the source of emotions and feelings. It’s often called the astral body or aura. When it detaches at the time of death it is sometime envisioned as a ghost.
The fourth layer is the vibrating body, or soul, is the source of communication. The vibrating body can’t be seen. We can feel it as intellectual and social consciousness.
The 5th layer of the body is subtle, refined waves. With it we are able to communicate across great distances with extra sensory perception and telepathy. We activate this body when we have a certain feeling about someone or a premonition about something in the future. When these waves move at high speeds, they cluster and appear as what we could call spiritual particles, which are nothing but weight. This 5th level is where understanding begins with the formation of images, mental pictures and imagination, either true or fantasy depending on our health condition. This is the realm of spirit.
The 6th level is difficult of perceive. This is the world of pure expanding and contracting motion, or yin and yang. It is the origin of pure consciousness in all forms, often accessed by meditation.
Finally, the 7th level is the universal, infinitely expanding body. All of us are within this universal sprit. The infinite universe exists everywhere, throughout all time. In the physical world, the universal body appears as nothing. On the level of God it is everything, the source of infinite depth, endless time and boundless space. It is the state of pure being. It is non-color that includes all colors, and silence that encompasses the complete harmony of all sounds.
Subconsciously we may be thinking that our life is ephemeral and someday we will die. In another part of our consciousness, we feel that our life is eternal and continues after death. These feelings arise when our body synchronizes with the spiritual world, enabling us to understand and remember our endless life. Health is the growth of consciousness towards universal all-embracing love. Then when we die, our next life is much happier and easier.
After death we shed these bodies one by one until we return to the infinite universe itself. The higher vibrational body withdraws from the physical body at death and continues living in the world of vibration or energy. We gradually change into each higher layer, becoming freer and freer until we are God itself. Each of our lives is preparation for the next.
As we continue on our spiritual journey, we embrace the solar system, Milky Way, all galaxies, and ultimately far beyond the visible, detectable universe. We develop a refined, spiritual nature. Our memory of these invisible worlds becomes clearer, and we start to understand them in a practical, non-mystical way. Our playground becomes larger and larger in a world without end.
2003 Heart Attack
2010 +/- Congestive Heart Failure
December 2020 Fell from stepladder, broke hip; Taxed heart and kidneys, Congestive Kidney Failure; Downhill slide into anasarca, a condition of severe whole body edema
June: Eating soups and Nepro (~ Ensure); Playing computer games; enjoying visitors; Blood in urine; Several hospitalizations; Enjoyed car trips to gaze on nature
1st week of July: Able to sit in a wheel chair; Blessed me on my birthday in the presence of friends. Sleeping, no eating
2nd week of July: No longer rising from his bed; Poor control of bowels; Receiving fluids and pain killers; Drinking water
Saturday: Family gathered; He slept and was responsive
Sunday: Dictated last chapter of book: “It Takes Many Angels to Support a Life.”
Monday: Rabbi offered Vidui: The Jewish tradition has a prayer of confession, recited together with the person who is so severely ill as to be near death.
Tuesday: Less and less coherent; repetitive demands–“Water!” and then, “No water.” Raise head.” Feet hurt;” Morphine patch and oxycodone
Wednesday, Thursday: We’re in a holding pattern now as Sheldon slowly detaches from this world and gives us time to adjust. So in a way I can say that all’s well. Sometimes it gets to me more than others of course. I could say that he’s learning to release. His body is so weak, and his mind still strong even though his expression is so limited. Heat seems to be moving up from his legs to his torso, neck and face. This dying thing seems about as difficult as being born…and living’s no picnic either. I look forward for Sheldon to the glorious world of no time / all time, no space / all space, no color / all color, and no resistance.
There is a practice described in The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying called Phowa (pronounced "po-wa"). It is a transference of consciousness that helps the dying person let go into the dying process with ease and confidence and fully release from this life. This is especially effective at the very moment of death and in the days immediately after. If you choose, you could do this practice once each week, or daily for the following 49 days. By that time, it is thought that he will have taken a rebirth.
At the time of death, when the consciousness has separated from the body, the mind of the dying person is highly sensitive. With our own compassionate intentions we can affect the dying person with the wisdom and love that we invoke during this practice. This allows the dying person to settle, to release from the attachments to this life, and to enter the process of dying and rebirth with ease and intention for a positive rebirth.
In a comfortable meditation posture, feeling relaxed and clear, invoke love, wisdom and compassion. Imagine a sphere of pure golden light before you. Consider the sphere or presence you are visualizing as the essence of wisdom and compassion. Open your heart to its presence and trust that it is there.
Pray: “May Sheldon know that it is time for him to let go into the process of taking a new life. May he know that this life is over and that his family and friends love and appreciate him and want him to move on with confidence and ease. May Sheldon be guided towards a new and beneficial birth in a place that he can accomplish all of his virtuous aspirations.”
Imagine that the light from the heart of wisdom, like the light from a rainbow, streams into Sheldon’s heart and that he is comforted, cleansed and set free. Imagine that his body and mind dissolve into light and into the heart of wisdom.