Death is inherited. We get it from our choices. We get it from our nature. We get it from the way we let our hearts exist.
Let me explain. Firstly, our stupid choices kill us. This goes way back to a garden where the first chick ate something she wasn’t supposed to. And we’ve been doing it ever since. This comes from appetite. What was she thinking? Well, she was thinking what the snake told her to think. And we’ve been doing that ever since then as well.
You see, I realize that we can plant things in other people’s brains.
It happens almost every moment of every day. I’ve been studying these things for quite some time. On one level, it’s called “marketing” where people tell you what you want. Or what they want you to want. And we humans are pretty much blank slates from birth (with the exceptions of our experiences in utero) and we need to know what we’re supposed to want, so we easily latch on to the suggestions of others. But at the same time, when we plant thoughts in people’s minds, it’s actually appealing to something that’s already there. Some primal urge for love or lust or power (= safety) or belonging.
Maybe that chick (let’s call her Eve) was hungry for something other than Eden. Maybe she was bored.
Hey, humans- we all know boredom leads to stupidity a lot of the time. Let me plant this idea in your mind about boredom: Gratitude is the key to tolerating (and really- embracing) boredom. Russel Brand said it well (and this is a loose paraphrase) that “the mundane is sacred”. It IS! The mundane is blessing. No crisis. No horror. Just simple boring peace.
But we Humans need More. (But do we really? Or is that just another thought planted by some snake?)
Secondly- it is our nature to die. It just happens on this level. Even if we never made a stupid choice, we would still die. It’s written into the program we exist in. And that’s because we are living in a story. History. And in this part of the story, death- or endings, happen. This is only a permanent nature for those who choose it. Here’s a quick BV for reference:
I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; that you may love the LORD your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days; and that you may dwell in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.
Deuteronomy 30:19-20
We can unpack all that more later, but the point is- we have a choice. Sometimes I don’t think I do, especially when it comes to chocolate (which apparently is laced with lead and cadmium nowadays) but I do. And I have to choose based on the outcome I want to live in. And sometimes that’s not easy, but again- what thoughts have been planted in my mind about this?
Moving on… number three. We die based on the way we allow our hearts to exist in the world.
We die on the inside first.
We let our hearts shrivel based on injustice, pain, envy, anger, and rage. And we almost feel like we have to in order to protect ourselves, and yes, on some level we do. But instead of allowing (or causing) our hearts to turn into hard little unfeeling rocks based on our pain, we have to learn to transcend it.
Because you know what happens when your heart seizes up because life isn’t flowing through it…it dies. Then you die.
And about that pain…everyone is experiencing it. Everyone. What makes any one of us so special that we think our pain is so much greater than the pain of others?
We humans, on planet Earth, exist in a brotherhood,/sisterhood/humanity-hood of pain.
And since this is true, we should look on others as our equals in pain- not beings to be taken advantage of, conquered, or destroyed. When we allow our hearts to harden fully, we make death decisions for others (by hating or hurting them) – and in the end, the same (hating and hurting) for ourselves (death).
And there’s more about death coming up. Like why they say Jesus died for us. There’s a reason for this that most of us probably miss. Stay tuned (if you wanna).
the sacred mind 