Acceptance

The first step to true liberation is acceptance.

It's easier said than done. As mammals with frontal lobes, our considerable evolution has been fueled by individual and group pursuit of The Great Why and The Great How.

Yet, to liberate ourselves, it is crucial to accept The Great Is. I mean to say it is necessary to deeply accept the realities of our own individual human life in this Universe. It is ancient wisdom: I am born; I grow older each moment; I die. This is the Great Commonality which binds us to each other and all life on our planet.

True, internalized acceptance of The Great Commonality erases fear, prejudice, selfishness, hatred, violence, indolence. It removes huge barriers from the useful, creative and shared pursuit of The Great Why and The Great How.

Meditation on hardship. Experience of pain and aging. Inspiring health and joy in others. Focusing on and attending to the immediate needs next to you and gradually more and more beyond your own life. These are some of the ways acceptance of The Great Commonality heals us and could heal our species and our planet. Unfortunately, acceptance of The Great Commonality comes for most human beings in old age and far too close to death for its effects to ripple through the species.

Dithering over the afterlife and things we cannot or do not attempt to plainly, scientifically prove in The Great Is wastes time and human energy. It is the procrastination of the self-centered and those who manipulate and enslave through ritual and religion. Liberated practice is putting acceptance into action from a place of mindful, peaceful and loving compassion.

Identity

I believe that all I am and may become in this life will end with my death. There is no evidence to support any other understanding of death, as far as I can tell. Therefore, it is useless to even ponder the question or behave in any way based on an imaginary afterlife. We are like other material objects. At death, our atoms will simply be redistributed into the Universe from which they came.

This perspective is very liberating. By accepting the immutable and inevitable, I am freed to concentrate my energies on being the best version of me I can be in any moment. Unlike religious people who base their behavior on codes, based on the elaborate dictates of an imaginary super being, I am free to look around me and base my behavior on the real world, subject to civil, natural and physical laws. It is my responsibility to make the best ethical decisions I can.

This consciousness stimulated those behaviors in my life which have been most humanitarian and socially responsible. I believe, if all people realized that all we have in this Universe is our common humanity, we would be less divided by religion, race and ethnicity.

Resurrection

Throughout history, human beings have tried to formulate a visual model for life's big concepts. Usually, these models come to us as myths or stories, contrived from many different parallel and historic events.

The Christian resurrection myth (Easter) is one of these stories. The phoenix myth, which appears in several cultures, is another. The human mind is still trying to cope with an understanding of death's finality, as science narrows the probability of conscious, personality-based life after death.

As a person who accepts the finality of death, the eventual and inevitable end of my personal being, I tend to seek resurrection as a hopeful process in my ongoing life. I try new things. I attempt to make new friends. I tackle learning curves. I turn from the old to the new. I let go and reach out. These activities and choices inspire resurrection of my energy and spirit, so easily dulled by age and experience.

Time spent worrying about an afterlife seems wasted to me. There is so much to learn now. There are so many new lives to be had within this present life. Each moment is an opportunity to let the negative in us die. Each moment is an opportunity to live a new, more positive life. Perhaps this is a key element of all practice for personal evolution.