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Dying before we die: We each have to remove the
mask and allow
ourselves to feel the
pain that the mask has been designed to
shield. To do so, we needs to a)
step out of mind, who we think and
come to believe we are, and b) step out of the programming we have
adopted to become acceptable. It is about learning to
die before we
die. It’s also known as the
dark night of the soul and/or depth of
pleasure and the depth of pain. It is about allowing ourselves to
face the pain [and joy] of life in a
safe secure space without the
mask.
NOTE: “Dying Before We Die” and “Emptying ourselves” more often than
not, normally go together. They are separated here for discussion
purposes. What needs to be understood that we can
die to something
but never empty ourselves of what causes the death. Continued
embarrassment in a way we act in the world could be such an example.
We suffer a death of
ego each time we are embarrassed but we never
change the actions that cause the embarrassment. Similarly, we can
empty ourselves but not die. For example, someone gets divorced and
empties themselves of their spouse but then never die to within
which causes the issue with their spouse such that they continually
repeat the actions with another.
Background
What is dying before we
die? The best way to understand dying before
we die is the expression, “I would not be caught dead doing that.”
It is to be able to experience that which we would not be caught
dead doing is do die before we die. But it needs to be noted, the
fact that we do what we would not be caught dead doing does not
necessarily mean we have died before we die -
mind is very tricky in
how it has come to learn to control our
creative spirit and what
lies in our heart and
symbolized
by the heart.
The issue we face is that when our
creative spirit is free and
unattached, we experience what has been called Nirvana in the
Eastern traditions and Heaven or the Kingdom of God in the Western
traditions. It is seen to be
free of the
pains and
experiences of
the body and
Physical Creation. In awareness, in this state we will
have all of the
creative
ability and creative power that is
possible.
Most see the need to
die to our physical body and transcend physical
existence before we can obtain such
freedom. However there is a deep
illusion here. Our
creative spirit can be as bound, if not more
bound, in the nonphysical realms as it can be in
Physical Creation.
The issue is our
attachments and that which we hold onto whether it
be likes or dislikes.
To
die before we die is do realize we live in an identity we create
as a result of the experiences we have had and what we have come to
think and believe. To die before we die is to be able to
freely step
out of the identity to experience that which is not contained within
that identity. Hence, “I would not be caught dead doing that.” That
is, we must die to the form and identity our
mind has created and
exists before we can even begin to contemplate doing a particular
action. It is to be able to have experiences totally contrary to who
and what we think we are. It is to
step out of mind
as we know and
understand our
mind and our identity. It is about creating the space
within ourselves for our
creative spirit to be totally free and
unbounded.
The
freedom of our
creative spirit to explore the unknown is
essential to our
creative
ability and creative power. Without the
freedom for our creative spirit to discover and explore in
child like play we rob ourselves of our creative ability and creative
power and put it in
a cage of our own making. The
creative process
starts in our
creative imagination but it must eventually be
translated into a physical experience If we cannot or do not
translate what is in our creative imagination for whatever reason
into a physical experience we rob our creative ability and creative
power to manifest what we desire in a
Physical Creation.
The are six issues in dying before we
die. The first and second are
related in that dying before we die is a two step process. There is
a shallow death and a deep death. The third is that if we don’t
empty ourselves when we die to any form, we will only recreate our
old identity in a new way. The fourth is the stripping away process
of both emptying ourselves and dying to the existing form we created
can be experience quite painfully and in some traditions has been
called the
dark night of the soul. The fifth is that we must face
life without the
mask we have created to protect ourselves. This can
be very frightening and
our creative spirit is extremely vulnerable to becoming hurt
causing us to retreat to
the cage we created to protect ourselves
often more encased then when we started. The sixth issue is about
opening ourselves to a new understanding as to the relationship
between our
mind and our body.
A shallow death
The shallow death is about dying to our own imagination. Many of us
are not
free to explore options in our
mind let alone in the world.
There are areas where how and what we think do not allow us to
enter. The first step is to free our ability to use and explore our
creative imagination to its fullest extent. It is to enter those
dark areas of mind that have been kept off limits by our
enculturation and programming or to into aspects of ourselves which
we have never ventured. It is to know that before we can be free
externally, we must free our mind and our ability to explore the
depth and breadth of our creative imagination.
A deep death
The deep death is to actually act to become different in the
external world. It is to take the
freedom access in being
free to
explore the depth and breadth of our
creative imagination into the
world. It is to act to create something, some aspect of our life or
an experience that lies totally outside our identity.
It is tremendously difficult to take the
freedom found in our
creative imagination into the world. A transition step which allows
us to get a feel for translating the freedom of the creative
imagination into action in the world is to use
play,
rituals,
ceremonies,
metatheater
and the like. It is to create experience
within a
safe and protected environment to be able to experience the
freedom of actions in a physical experience.
Here one learns what it feels like to have
true freedom in a
physical experience. That feeling of freedom can then be used and an
internal compass to guide us in life as we bring our desired
creation into manifesting in a world not totally open to what we
wish to create. This transition step also addresses the fifth issue
above. As we move out of our
mask
into
our truth, we need some time
to experience our truth in a
safe space and to know what it means to
be
free to express our truth.
Empty ourselves
It is here the need to empty ourselves and dying before we
die
overlay. Whenever we die to any existing form, we must empty
ourselves of the whatever is in our life that created and/or holds
us to that form. It is to realize the identity we have is based on
the experiences we have had. However any experience we have had has
been translated and filter by the
mind and what it thinks and
believes. To empty yourselves means to go back and either remove
what we think and believe and replace it with something that better
serves us
or we become like the
scarab, and recycle the past into a
new life such that it allow us to create a new identity.
Stripping away
There is a stripping away process in which we must undergo. We
create the experience we have by desire. There is something we
desire for one reason or another. We seek something or we run away
from something. But whether we seek or run away, we are simply
attached to something and that
attachment is what causes us to have the experience we do.
To experience something new, we must release our
attachments of the past and attach to something which will allow
us to create what we desire. To experience
true freedom, we must release all attachments.
But true freedom is not necessary. We only need to release the
attachment which create the experience we desire to change. If we do
not release our attachment and still hold our desire we will cause
ourselves tremendous
pain.
But any
creative endeavor takes us into the unknown where
mind can
be of little value. The easiest way to face any significant creative
endeavor is to release all
attachment and seek to become totally
free knowing that all will not leave our life. It is to know that
some of our life will remain totally unchanged, some of it will
transform but remain in our life and some of it will leave to make
room for the new Creation. What actually needs to change, we may not
know. But by releasing all, we allow for the most painless
transformation possible. It is in essence to
die to all that is in
our life - all of it and plan on everything changing.
Vulnerability
The fifth issue is
vulnerability When we allow ourselves to
die to
all that we know, we become extremely vulnerable. There are three
ways to address this issue. They are:
trust and
safe and secure space, realizing the potential
pain in vulnerability, and learning to know what
our truth feels like.
Trust and a safe and secure space: One issue of
vulnerability is to
know we will be vulnerable and create a
safe space of those
individuals and situation in which we can be vulnerable but yet
protected. This of course bring up the issue of whom can we
trust.
But it is really about can we trust ourselves to know enough to
select those individual who can offer us the protection we need when
we are vulnerable. The issue is not outward trust but learning how
to trust our own
inner guidance and
inner wisdom to lead us to those
individuals and situation that will
serve us and what we desire. It
is to trust when things do not go the way we want and/or expect that
they are what needs to happen for the intention we hold to manifest.
Potential pain in vulnerability: The second issue is to know that we
are
vulnerability and not over react to any
pain, hurt, betrayal and
the like that may come into our life. It is to not run away into a
old defensive posture or create a new one. It is to allow ourselves
to sit in that pain and look to what is really being wounded, remove
ourselves from the pain but, most importantly, release the
attachment giving rise to that pain. On this point we may need to
remain in the pain and not attempt to remove ourselves from it until
we fully understand it. This of course can be very difficult and
painful. Hence the need for a
safe and secure space to process our
pain much the way a young child seek a
warm feminine nurturing
presence like mommy to ease the pain. This, of course, takes us back
to the issue of
trust and whom do we trust to hold us in our pain.
Learning to feel our truth: The third issue is
learning to feel
our truth. To feel our truth, we must be
open to feeling and what we
feel in each and every level of our being. Our truth is
vulnerable,
unless we learn to live in, and with, that vulnerability, without
running away from the
pain it may bring to us, we will never be able
to live our truth. We need a
safe and secure space and time to live
in our truth and experience it. It is much like a muscle that needs
to be developed. We need to do exercises to strengthen it. We need
to create way to live our truth in a safe and secure space to know
the depth and breath of our truth and to know what it feels like to
be able to go into the world without losing our truth.
A new understanding
The sixth issue is about opening ourselves to a new understanding as
to the relationship between our
mind and our body and
how our inner
world is reflected in our outer world. We must
die to traditional
understanding of the relationship between the mind and body.
Traditionally, the
mind and body are seen as separate. Within a
creativity perspective where we
hold
our creativity sacred, the mind
and body are interconnected and
our inner
world is reflected in our outer. What we think and believe is reflected in our body, its
environment and the experiences we have in Creation. It is to come
to the understanding we are both the creator and the creation. We
are the creator experiencing its creation.
An iterative process
Dying before we
die is an iterative process. There are instantaneous
transformation where we have a total death and rebirth. However it
is not necessarily rare, but something
mind does not create. It is
something we stumble into. We can create the conditions to increase
stumbling into it but it is not something we can create. Hence, for
most, we can expect an iterative process and iterative deaths. Each
death going a little deeper than the last. How long it takes and how
many deaths is entirely our choice. We can
create a critical mass to
optimize the possibility of creating that ultimate death that allows
us to enter Nirvana or Heaven here and now. But it needs to be
emphasized that if we do not empty ourselves in that death, we will
simply revert back to our old form. It all depends on how big a
transition we wish to face.
Recommendations for dying before we die
Explore our creative imagination in freedom: Imagine several
different short stories, scenarios, situations and the like where
you are intimately involved in the story. Imagine a few stories
exploring those areas that have been off limits to you because of
what you think and believe. Imagine a few stories in areas that you
have never experience or even heard of existing (you will of course
need to ask another for some ideas about things you never heard of
existing). Do whatever research as necessary. Become aware of what
you feel as you imagine the story. Allow yourself the
freedom of
play in your
creative imagination and to experience what it feels
like to be
free to play.
Transition our creative imagination in freedom: Write, draw or
create toy figurine scenarios for several different short stories,
scenarios, situations and the like you created in your
creative imagination where you are intimately involved in the story, drawing
or toy scenario. Write/draw/create a few exploring those areas that
have been off limits to you because of what you think and believe.
Write/draw/create a few in areas that you have never experience or
even heard of existing (you will of course need to ask another for
some ideas about things you never heard of existing). Do whatever
research as necessary. Become aware of what you feel as you
write/draw/creation the story and complete it
Manifesting our creative imagination in freedom: Take whatever you
created in your
creative imagination and make a real experience in
some way - literally or symbolically. Read your stories to someone,
show them your drawing, play the toy scenario out before them and/or
create a
metatheater
for which you create.
An initiation: Find someone you
trust and is willing to have
creatively
play with you. Have them observe your life and look at
the response patterns you have developed in your life. Ask then to
create an
initiation to initiation you into experience that will
take you outside of who and what you think and are and what you
believe about yourself.
Removing the masks we wear: Place the mask of the heart you created
on your heart and the mask you show the world on your face. Remove
them and destroy them. See what you do as a
ritual to being the
process as if you were “drawing a line in the sand” over which you
step, never to return. See removing the symbolic
mask of the heart
you create and the mask you show the world as the first step is
opening the door to
free
your truth.
Coconut ritual: Take a coconut and look at is as your
mind and your
ego. Ritually break the coconut drinking its milk and eating its
interior. Look at what you do as shattering the identity you have
created and by eating and drinking the interior you recycle your
past into a new Creation. The journey is not about our past away but
to recycle it in a way that
serves us
and what we desire to create.
Not doing exercise: Create playful metatheatric scenarios or
actually opportunities where you can practice “not doing”. That is,
doing other than who and what you believe yourself to be. Become
aware of what you think, feel, and what judgements you have as you
do your “not doing.”
Creating a critical mass: Consider what
ritual, ceremony or other
activity you could perform that would destroy how and what you think
and believe spiritually, emotionally, mentally and physically about
yourself and your
creative
ability and creative power? If you become
totally
free as result of what you do, what would you create with
your life? What keeps you for acting on what you describe/identify?
Do the activities that you identify that will destroy the belief
structure that holds your creativity captive.
Dying before you die and emptying ourselves: Consider how you could
go about dying before you
die and simultaneously emptying yourself
and tie what you do for one with the other. Ask your
intuitive guidance the equivalent of “What does it look like for me to die
before I die or what do I need to do to die before I die?’ Play or
act out your dying in
ritual, ceremony or
metatheater.
The next step
Becoming our truth - 04 Emptying oneself
Related topics
How we create our experiences
Two things about death and dying before we die
Death and dissolution
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