Death and Dying

            There are many types of deaths.  Depending on your culture and your beliefs, death can be regarded as a release to a greater glory, or a dive into oblivion.  Many cultures don’t believe in “Death” as the end to all things, but rather a time when the human host sheds it’s mortal shell beginning a new life in a new place.  Some of these cultures believe that the person is reborn into a new body and begins the process of being human all over again.  Buddhist monks would tell you that we are shedding the old and regaining the new to reincarnate and learn or re-learn lessons that we haven’t yet learnt.  The Hindu would tell you that you are traveling from one life to the next learning the lessons presented to you on your travels to becoming a god or goddess. 

            About two thousand years ago a cat was born that changed the rules about death and dying. While he was growing into adulthood he traveled and learned lessons from many cultures and many beliefs.  He traveled east and learned from the Buddhist monks, he learned from Hindu masters, and he learned from the Ascetics in between.  The Gnostics gave the young man an appreciation for the earth and her energies and an understanding of angles and his place amongst them.  This young fellow began teaching the people that where teaching him, and as he grew older the many cultures where growing disillusioned with him wanting to dispatch him to his higher glory.   He was teaching them a new understanding of death and how to understand dying.  He was showing them the power that is held within us all, to go beyond the end to the beginning and be truly immortal. 

            This young man had an uncle named Joseph.  His uncle Joe managed to save his neck on many occasions and kept traveling from one location to another in his business as a merchant and trader.  They may have even traveled to England, where it is said that Joseph traded with an old wizened one there named Merlin, giving him an old Saracen sword that belonged to David.  It’s name was Excalibur.  

            When the young man, no longer so young, finely made it back home, he was not recognized by the many.  His mother knew him and celebrated his return.  His father, another Joseph and a carpenter by trade, welcomed the return of the young Rabbi.  Then the young man began to teach his lessons to the people of the desert.  He taught them the differences between dying and death.  He taught them how take control of their lives, how to see the truth through the illusion.  He taught them how to be happy. 

            A fellow named Harod was spooked at the voice speaking from the desert and alerted the local constabulary who in turn alerted the jurisdictional presence.  The Roman official again stepped it up the line of authority and after awhile it ended up in the office of a Pilot.  He decided that the young man’s own people should determine if his words where heresy or truth.   They decided to send the young Rabbi to his just rewards and the rest has become history.  The messages sent to the people by the young man to us on how to live, die, and be reborn into immortality are still ringing in the years, and we celebrate the life and death of the individual and our selves.  We celebrate the seasons of his birth and death for our lives.  His name was Jesus.

Peace and Balance,

John