Sunday, February 17, 2008

A Blink of Awareness

Today, in the silence of our Quaker meeting, I spent much of the hour pondering life’s two great mysteries: birth (or, to be exact, conception) and death.

Where did we come from before life? Where are we going after it?

I concluded, as many others have, that there aren’t two mysteries, but one.

Where we are going in death is precisely where we came from before "life."

In fact, this infinitesimal sojourn we call “life” may be merely a fleeting moment in a great unknowable continuum.

Life may be a mere blink of awareness, but of . . . what?

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3 Comments:

Blogger ALT said...

If it's a continuum, then how can we go "back" to where we were before "life"?

7:12 PM  
Blogger Rick Seifert said...

I got to thinking about that later myself. I wondered whether anyone would question it. Thanks for doing so.

I think the distinction is between place and time. In death we go back to the PLACE we came from before life, but that place as moved on in TIME — which is a continuum.

Another question: You can go home again, but time has changed it. So is it really the same place? Just as you can't step into the same river twice.

Having said that, I doubt whether mere words can do justice to any of this. Or even whether the ideas expressed here reflect in any way what we may experience. It is unknowable to us — for now in this "life" and perhaps forever.

11:03 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Nice. Maybe I should join Quakers, I see they are smart.

3:25 PM  

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