Uganda Today:
Ayella Amuru develves into the mystery of death and the fear it instills in humanity whenever one thinks about it.
I often get messages in my inbox from people grappling with all sorts of anxieties and the greatest of all anxieties is this never-ending fear of death. I have had friends from all occupations; from pastors to priests to politicians, business people, academics and their greatest fear is always the fear of death. This is why we hide behind beliefs for comfort.
Although I admit that I am no expert in these affairs but I have always asked my friends what is it that they are afraid of? Death is unknown. You cannot be afraid of what you don’t know. I have come to realize that our fear of death is due to the fear of losing what we have accumulated. We are afraid of losing the knowledge we have accumulated, the power, the friends, family, wealth and our experiences/pleasures. Of all pleasures that we seek, God is the ultimate pleasure.
Our fear is because we identify with our accumulations. We identify with our houses, children, money and all sorts of experiences. We also identify with our “Gods”—we are even arrogant enough to tell each other that my “God” is better than your “God”, which is a form spiritual vanity. Spiritual vanity is thinking that you will be rewarded for your good deeds and therefore you think by depositing prayers into your spiritual bank account, your God will favor you over billions of other humans who do not share your beliefs and do not recognize your God. We simply don’t know who or what we are because whatever we are is a product of the culture we are born into and the things we have been exposed to—which is our conditioning and we act according to our conditioning. We have been conditioned from childhood that there is a soul, a spirit that goes to a place called heaven or afterlife and we have accepted that, very few people question that. Death only exists to the ego who identifies with his/her accumulation or experiences.
You have never experienced your own birth and you are not going to experience death because you are not your ego. When did your life begin? When? Is it your birthday? Is it the day your father met your mother? No. Your life began when life began on planet earth, you are only manifesting in your current form. You had a father and mother 2 Million years ago or more and from that time nature kept reproducing itself until you came into being and even if you don’t reproduce always remember there is no difference between self and other. Every newborn child is a part of you and every dying person is a part of you. You have no beginning and no ending—only the ego taking flight. Fear nothing because you are life and life cannot die because what dies is always born and what is born is always dying—reshuffling of atoms in nature to maintain the energy that continues to propel life. Stop living in fear.