Concentric Circles

2024, May, Issue 95

Though we may think we are

here or there

nothing

is as it seems;

Location

cannot be located,

self

cannot be found,

we see nothing to stand upon

in this constantly changing condition;

In this swirling ever-changing physical reality

this unreality of illusion,

that fictitious reality we create

for our self

a self we cannot locate, alone,

alone

alone where there is

no stability

whatsoever,

as every part of us changes

constantly vibrating buzzing twirling within this material form,

thoughts, like waves on the high seas,

dissolving, spinning, electrocuting this instant,

where we seek answers

seek answers

seek any answer to our most

precious concerns,

this life is

is not as it seems,

and we most definitely are not this

or that, here or there;

It is folly to seek pseudo-answers

blind nonsensical beliefs without examination

within this illusion, to

explain

what is not real,

within unreality trying to explain reality,

comically trying, ever-changing folly,

better, I think,

to see that

immutable

presence

of being, just

as it

is,

beyond

beyond all explanations

beyond any and all assertions,

of any kind.

A poem from, Timeless Luminosity, pp. 127-128, © 2020.

People were surprised to hear that I instantly became that inexplicable light when I died.  Many people see a long tunnel, with a bright light at the end.  They wonder if they should go into that light.  For me, it was instantaneous, and all that was left was the pure clarity of infinite bright awareness.

Coming back to this life meant that I had to go through a painful process of remembering and reestablishing a fabricated existence, an identity as a human.  This process was a rather depressing thing to do, after having become all of bright expansive reality, beyond any constraints.  This limited existence is rather uncomfortable, and I don’t feel like I fit in this space any longer.

So, when I encounter others who have died and returned, some are filled with the joy that someone else has had this full experience.  I feel that way when someone understands what I really can’t explain, simply because it has to be directly experienced by not only going into the light, but by becoming the light.  These empty words barely scratch the surface of that profound experience.

If someone dies and they tell you that they went to heaven or hell, or they met this or that deity, or that they joined their family, or any number of stories they might tell about that, this is a shallow experience, not fully engaging in the profound reality that we can discover beyond in light.  Our identity, family, religion, politics, all of this nonsense is just something we fabricate.  It’s a noisy, ever-changing, fabrication that we invent for the continuation of our own ego; and, our own ego is the cause of all suffering.  The actions we take, including our beliefs, send ripples out into this dark dull realm where we live, creating conditions that we must live with in lifetime after lifetime.

When we really think about our life and death, we start to see various concentric circles.  That realization seems very nice, at first, when we think about how concentric circles spread everywhere.  When we think about our actions, however, we start to see that we are really sending out shockwaves.  This can become overwhelming. 

Self is surrounded by family and community, which is surrounded by religion, spirituality, ethnicity and national identity, nature, the world, the solar system, the galaxy, the universe, the multiverse, etc.  We could illustrate this in any number of ways, depending upon how we think about these relationships we have with absolutely everything everywhere.  We might feel as though we’ve discovered something very nice and comforting at first.

When we look deeper, however, a certain cacophony arises.  We start to see that these circles do not uniformly radiate outwardly from our self; and, they’re not necessarily in the same plane.  They keep changing, maybe wobbling or disappearing, or reappearing.  We might see that we are on the edge of some circles and at the center of maybe only one, which is our own ego.

If we apply this notion to our own death, we start to see that shallow experiences radiate from the things that we know, or the things that we utilize for the defense of ego.  We start to see that people know only a very little bit about us, even if we are famous or we spill our guts about everything.  We start to see that we’ve invented every belief we have, along with all of our identity and purpose in life.

We need to get real about dealing with these concentric circles, then go beyond, without limitations.  This means we stop cultivating ego, start opening our heart and mind.  We awaken by not being constrained by any of these circles.  When you die, when you go beyond the very shallow experiences related to belief or concepts, you will be ready to traverse the death bardo with relative ease.

Don’t expect death to meet your expectations, as clinging to belief and identity will only cause you problems at some point.  If you can let go by opening your heart and mind to what is, then death will be no problem.

Blessings in Light,               

Robert Aho