The continuity of existence
I have started reading Deepak Chopra's Life After Death at the recommendation of a friend. The main idea is that there is a continuity of existence, which is emphasized through scientific discoveries & experiments. These are some pertinent quotes from the first ~80 pages:
"Right now you are at the center of the universe because infinity extends in all directions, yet someone on the other side of the world is also at the center of the universe, because infinity extends on all sides of him, too. If both of you are centers of the universe, you must both be at the same location. The fact that you appear to be in different places is a sensory artifact. It's based on sights and sounds, which are local events. You are not a local event."
-Deepak Chopra, Life After Death, p.6
This quote reminds me of a few verses from Liber AL vel Legis:
*AL I:3 Every man and every woman is a star.
-Every star is the center of their own universe. "...You are at the center of the Universe... yet someone... is also at the center of the universe... both of you are centers of the universe."
*AL I:4 Every number is infinite; there is no difference.
-Each star is simultaneously unique (Atman, Hadit) but also the omnipresent All(Brahman, Nuit); "...You must both be at the same location... you are not a local event."
*AL I:22 Now, therefore, I am known to ye by my name Nuit, and to him by a secret name which I will give him when at last he knoweth me. Since I am Infinite Space, and the Infinite Stars thereof, do ye also thus. Bind nothing! Let there be no difference made among you between any one thing & any other thing; for thereby there cometh hurt.
-Nuit is the "infinity [that] extends in all directions" and which "extends on all sides" of each individual, or star; Hadit is each person that is "at the center of the Universe..." Our separation "is a sensory artifact... You are not a local event."
*AL II:3 In the sphere I am everywhere the centre, as she, the circumference, is nowhere found.
-The innermost self, the "I" spoken of in the Liber AL verse, is Hadit or in Hindu terminology, the Atman, which is the "center of the universe" spoken of by Chopra.
"The soul's trajectory is always upward. Any suffering on the astral plane, even the most tormenting hell, is only a temporary detour."
-Deepak Chopra, Life After Death, p.12
This reminded me of
*Liber AL II:9 Remember all ye that existence is pure joy; that all the sorrows are but as shadows; they pass & are done; but there is that which remains.
"Whatever it is that occurs at death, I believe it deserves to be called a miracle. The miracle, ironically, is that we don't die. The cessation of the body is an illusion, and like a magician sweeping aside a curtain, the soul reveals what lies beyond. Mystics have long understood the joyousness of this moment. As the great Persian poet Rumi puts it, "Death is our wedding with eternity." "
-Deepak Chopra, Life After Death, p.25
First of all, this passage reminds me of the Bhagavad Gita, chapter 2 (translation by Easwaran):
11 You speak sincerely, but your sorrow has no cause. The wise grieve neither for the living
12 nor for the dead. There has never been a time when you and I and the king gathered here have not existed, nor will there be a time
13 when we will cease to exist. As the same person inhabits the body through childhood, youth, and old age, so too at the time of death he attains another body. The wise are not deluded by these changes.
&
20 ...there is neither slayer nor slain. You were never born; you will never die. You have never changed; you can never change. Unborn, eternal, immutable, immemorial,
21 you do not die when the body dies. Realizing that which is indestructible, eternal, unborn and unchanging, how can you slay or cause another to slay?
22 As a man abandons worn-out clothes and acquires new ones, so when the body is worn out a new one is acquired by the Self, who lives within.
23 The Self cannot be pierced by weapons or burned by fire; water cannot wet it, nor can
24 the wind dry it. The Self cannot be pierced or burned, made wet or dry. It is everlasting and infinite, standing on the motionless founda-
25 tions of eternity. The Self is unmanifested, beyond all thought, beyond all change. Knowing this, you should not grieve.
26 O mighty Arjuna, even if you believe the Self to be subject to birth and death, you should
27 not grieve. Death is inevitable for the living; birth is inevitable for the dead. Since these are
28 unavoidable, you should not sorrow. Every creature is unmanifested at first and then attains manifestation. When its end has come, it once again becomes unmanifested. What is there to lament in this?
29 The glory of the Self is beheld by a few, and a few describe it; a few listen, but many without understanding. The Self of all being, living within the body, is eternal and cannot be harmed. Therefore, do not grieve.
This passage speaks for itself. Chopra's quote explains ideas similar to ones in Liber AL:
*AL I:26, "Then saith the prophet and slave of the beauteous one: Who am I, and what shall be the sign? So she answered him, bending down, a lambent flame of blue, all-touching, all penetrant, her lovely hands upon the black earth, & her lithe body arched for love, and her soft feet not hurting the little flowers: Thou knowest! And the sign shall be my ecstasy, the consciousness of the continuity of existence, the omnipresence of my body.
-A "sign" of Nuit is "the consciousness of the continuity of existence" which is the "miracle" Chopra talks about: that we don't die. "The omnipresence of my body" is the sign that shows you to be the "center of the Universe" that Chopra mentions.
*AL II:9, "Remember all ye that existence is pure joy; that all the sorrows are but as shadows; they pass & are done; but there is that which remains."
-That which remains is that which does not and can not die, the real essence or Self, the Atman.
*AL II:17, "Hear me, ye people of sighing!
The sorrows of pain and regret
Are left to the dead and the dying,
The folk that not know me as yet."
-Only that which can die, that which is temporal and not eternal, can suffer.
*AL II:21, "We have nothing with the outcast and the unfit: let them die in their misery. For they feel not. Compassion is the vice of kings: stamp down the wretched & the weak: this is the law of the strong: this is our law and the joy of the world. Think not, o king, upon that lie: That Thou Must Die: verily thou shalt not die, but live. Now let it be understood: If the body of the King dissolve, he shall remain in pure ecstasy for ever. Nuit! Hadit! Ra-Hoor-Khuit! The Sun, Strength & Sight, Light; these are for the servants of the Star & the Snake."
-The "outcast and unfit" are those out of the circle of Nuit or of the Knowledge of Eternity or those parts of ourselves that are attachments and not the true center, Hadit or Atman. Chopra's "we don't die" is similar to Liber AL's "Think not, o king, upon that lie: That Thou Must Die: verily thou shalt not die, but live." Chopra reminds of the Rumi poet who said "Death is our wedding with eternity," which parallels in Liber AL when it says "Now let it be understood: If the body of the King dissolve, he shall remain in pure ecstasy for ever."
*AL II:45, "There is death for the dogs."
-A dog is an unfit part of oneself, an attachment to an "I" or ego. Any attachments to these temporal things are "unreal" by Hindu standards and are subject to death & sorrow. Just as the Qiphoth are the unbalanced and inverted parts of the Tree of Life, just like the Devil is God inverted (as Yeats' Golden Dawn motto will tell you), a dog is a part of oneself opposed to or inverted of the god.
*AL II:58, "Yea! deem not of change: ye shall be as ye are, & not other. Therefore the kings of the earth shall be Kings for ever: the slaves shall serve. There is none that shall be cast down or lifted up: all is ever as it was. Yet there are masked ones my servants: it may be that yonder beggar is a King. A King may choose his garment as he will: there is no certain test: but a beggar cannot hide his poverty.
-The true inner self at the center, Hadit, is the "King" which is eternal and beyond change. Crowley says in his commentary for this line, "Again we learn the permanence of the Nature of a Star. We are not to judge by temporary circumstances, but to penetrate to the True Nature."
*AL II:66 Write, & find ecstasy in writing! Work, & be our bed in working! Thrill with the joy of life & death! Ah! thy death shall be lovely: whososeeth it shall be glad. Thy death shall be the seal of the promise of our age long love. Come! lift up thine heart & rejoice! We are one; we are none.
-Once again, the Rumi poet who said "Death is our wedding with eternity" mirrors the line in Liber AL where it says "Thy death shall be the seal of the promise of our age long love."
"...We don't contact the deepest part of ourselves, which the rishis called Atman. The closest equivalent word in English is "soul." Soul and Atman are a spark of the divine, the invisible component that brings God's presence into flesh and blood. The biggest difference between them is that in Vedanta the soul isn't separate from God. unlike the Christian soul, Atman cannot come from God or return to him. There is unity between the human and the divine; awareness of this unity is the necesary step that makes reality dawn. To say "I am God" comes naturally with Atman..."
-Deepak Chopra, Life After Death p.30-31
Liber AL:
*AL I:6 Be thou Hadit, my secret centre, my heart & my tongue!
-Nuit announces Hadit is the centre & heart of herself, showing them "there is unity between the human and the divine."
*AL II:23 I am alone: there is no God where I am.
-This is Hadit, as the Atman, proclaiming "I am God," there is no separation from "God" and Atman is the All
*AL II:66 Write, & find ecstasy in writing! Work, & be our bed in working! Thrill with the joy of life & death! Ah! thy death shall be lovely: whososeeth it shall be glad. Thy death shall be the seal of the promise of our age long love. Come! lift up thine heart & rejoice! We are one; we are none.
-The unity between the self and the All is inherent; Liber AL says "We are one; we are none." Crowley's commentary on this line says "The Atheism of God. 'Allah's the Atheist! He owns no Allah.' To admit God is to look up to God, and so not to be God. The cures of duality."
Other quotations pertaining to this subject of continuity of existence, or the existence of a Self beyond death:
Atma Upanishad
3 ...The supreme Self is neither born nor dies.
He cannot be burned, moved, pierced, cut, nor dried.
Beyond all attributes, the supreme Self
Is the eternal witness, ever pure,
Indivisible, and uncompounded,
Far beyond the senses and the ego.
In him conflicts and expectations cease.
He is omnipresent, beyond all thought,
Without action in the external world,
Without action in the internal world.
Detached from the outer and the inner,
This supreme Self purifies the impure.
OM shanti shanti shanti.
Mundaka Upanishad, Chapter III, lines 1-2
1 Like two golden birds perched on the selfsame tree, intimate friends, the ego and the Self dwell in the same body. The former eats the sweet and sour fruits of the tree of life while the latter looks on in detachment.
2 As long as we think we are the ego, we feel attached and fall into sorrow. But realize that you are the Self, the Lord of life, and you will be freed from sorrow.
3 When you realize that you are the Self, Supreme source of light, supreme source of love, you transcend the duality of life and enter into the unitive state.
(both Upanishads are translated by Eknath Easwaran)
"Those who suffer and those who weep, those who have been betrayed, who have been badly repaid in life, who have received no gratitude and have been victims of calumny or fraud really forget themselves, their real Intimate Being, and completely identify with their moral tragedy."
-Samuel Aun Weor, Revolutionary Psychology, chapter 3
"The Atman alone is eternal. Hospitals will tumble down. Railroad givers will all die. This earth will be blown to pieces, suns wiped out. The Atman endures for ever."
-Swami Vivekananda
"Stand as a rock; you are indestructible. You are the Self, the God of the universe."
-Swami Vivekananda
"What is changing must always be unreal. What is constant or permanent must always be real. The Atman or the eternal, all-pervading Self ever exists. It is the only Reality. This phenomenal world of names and forms is ever changing. Names and forms are subject to decay and death. Hence they are unreal or impermanent."
-Paramahamsa Swami Shivananda Sarawati