Things Are Not What They Seem (Part 2.)

First a little housekeeping; Keysunset left the following comment on part one of Things Are Not What They Seem to Be.

“Just need a little clarification. Your quote says, ‘There is nothing to say or to hear,
‘There is nothing to do:
‘It is he who is living, yet dead, who shall never die again.’”

“But then you say, ‘But, as Kabir says, when what appears to be so real is seen for what it is, then one becomes living, yet dead, and is never born again.’”

“Is it ‘never die again’ or ‘never born again’? For me, at least, it changes the thought.”

So, to answer her question, it was not my intention to change Kabir’s statement in my paraphrase. It should read; "But, as Kabir says, when what appears to be so real is seen for what it is, then one becomes living, yet dead, and never dies again."

Thank you Keysunset for catching my mistake.

But her comment made me wonder—I mean the part about it changing the meaning for her. I thought it had something to do with the fact that Keysunset is a Christian, and the concept of ‘born again’ holds tremendous significance in her faith. So I asked her about it, and in fact, my assumption was correct, that in her faith, the end, as in the goal, is to be born again into Christ and the Kingdom of Heaven.

I remember the story of Lazarus in the New Testament. Lazarus was dead until Christ walked by and told him, “Lazarus arise!” And Lazarus arose and was ‘born again’ in Him. I recall that Andre Segovia, the great classical guitarist once referred to that story saying, “from that moment, Lazarus belonged more to Christ then he did to his own mother and father.”

Still, I wonder, what the distinction is between ‘born no more’ and ‘die no more’. The soul is eternal and in eternity there is no birth—no beginning—and if there is no beginning there can be no death—no end. Birth and death only have meaning in life—in illusion.

Additionally, I think the distinction Keysunset makes brings up the difference in belief held by modern Christians and Muslim—that there is only one birth and one death—and the Vedic belief in reincarnation (many births and many deaths).

I love how Meher Baba deals with this distinction in God Speaks:
“…it is made clear that it is God who plays the different roles, real and imaginary. The beginning is God and the end is God; the intermediary stages cannot but be God.

‘Maulana Shabistari, in Gulshan-e-Raz says:

“He returns to the door from which he first came out, although in his journey he went from door to door.’”

(To be continued.)