Higher Consciousness and Our Fear of Death

Envision stepping back from a nose-to-the-wall view of a mural. Just before beginning to move away you may have no idea that there is even a painting in front of you. With each inch of movement the painting is revealed for what it is and what it contains. This is what higher consciousness allows, a broader and broader perspective on the nature of what we have accepted as the limits of reality.

In the example of the mural, the broadening perspective not only reveals the painting in its fullness, it also eventually allows us to see ourselves in relation to all of the other selves in the gallery who are doing things similar to what we are doing, and with the gallery itself. From the broadest perspective, there is nothing unique going on: every self is having an experience in the gallery, and it is only the individuals with the narrowest view who would perceive their own experiences as distinctive. 

This broadening of perspective is enlightenment at work. With it we begin to recognize our thoroughgoing connection with all of the rest of our fellow human beings and ultimately with the rest of creation. The empathy that results has an impact on our views of suffering and death. From this higher-consciousness perspective we observe that all creatures suffer in life and that every living thing eventually deteriorates and dies. There is nothing unique in it for any of us; no life form is singled out; we are all in the same boat. It is just Nature at work. No other creature can reach out for protection or exemption. Why would we?

When we see transience in life and separation at death as just the way of a world of which we are part, our identification with the body and with the self that we associate with it begins to lose relevance. It is through our lessening association with the physical realm that the basic fear that motivates Ego is seen for what it is, an extremely powerful biological force that has physical survival as its end. 

Now, regardless of this new perspective, because higher awareness is an evolutionary continuation of the physical plane, that powerful fear will remain in service. It is part of the program of the material platform that non-material awareness is built on and will continue to play its supporting role. But understanding fear as nothing more than a function of the body’s survival system gives us a chance to deal differently with it when it arises in our consciousness and not reflexively begin to look for a supernatural intervention.

(from “Live Like a Window, Work Like a Mirror: Enlightenment and the Practice of Eternity Consciousness”)