BEING / NOT BEING

RENOWNED author Alan Watts discusses the possibility of a fluctuating universe in his book ‘The Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are’. He writes…. “The physical world of time and space where there is a You here and Other over there compels you to make comparisons. This is different from That. This three dimensional world is in fact by definition, a world of opposites.

Logically, you cannot have Light without Dark, otherwise you would not be able to determine the fact that Light is actually light. In the same vein, you cannot have White without Black, or Good without Evil, Love without Hate, Male without Female or a myriad of other symbiotic opposites.

Using that analogy – you could also hypothesize that you also cannot have Life without Death. You could even say Life is the cause of Death. It is necessary to have Death, to be able to have its opposite, Life. Looking at this world of opposites objectively, could your existence here on earth at this moment in time then be described as ‘BEING’- (alive) which has its necessary opposite ‘NOT BEING’- (dead)?

To take it a step further, is it possible then that you – your very existence – fluctuates between BEING and NOT BEING, which is but a natural part of the Ebb and Flow of the universe. Where ‘NOT BEING’ is merely the ‘Off’ interval in an On/Off fluctuation? Your ‘On’ alive side must then be eternal because the alternative to this fluctuation (e.g., its absence) would imply its presence?

Is it conceivable then, that you are basically an eternal being momentarily and perhaps needlessly terrified by one half of yourself, (the ‘Off’ death side) because you have identified all of yourself with the other half (the ‘On’ alive side)? If in reality, it is a part of your eternal nature to fluctuate between ‘On’ and ‘Off’, why must you so commit yourself so fully to the ‘On’ side of yourself that you cannot look at or understand your other essential ‘Off’ side and are therefore fearful of your natural, continual alternation between the two?

Is it possible that there is an intelligent purpose to all this in that to have an active, energy consuming ‘On’ side, it is necessary for your eternal soul’s well being, to have a restful, energy conserving ‘Off’ side to balance your eternal existence? An enjoyable dance so to speak of coming into being and then not being that is for you, an ongoing, transformational process.”

If this hypothesis has any credence at all, then death should never have been cast as a Grim Reaper, but rather as an Amiable Reaper, who is pushing us gently to and fro on the pendulum of existence…

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 Dan’s Quote: “Life and death are two sides of the one coin of eternal beingness.”

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