To be aware of life is to be consciously wakeful of the process of life, which is continuously unfolding. This applies whether we are incarnate or not. One moment, we are conscious on the physical plane, and a little while later, we move to another plane, and our consciousness is located there. As long as our state of consciousness is limited to forms, death will always hold terrors for us. As soon as we are convinced of our existence as souls and that we can transfer our consciousness or awareness to any plane, into any form, and any direction within God’s creation, we will no longer recognize death as such.

This article aims to illuminate our old, familiar teacher – Death. The text is based on the works of the Tibetan teacher, Master D.K.^[1][2]

Most people view death as the end of everything. According to this view, it ends friendship and human relations. The individual’s activities come to an end. The bonds of love and respect are torn apart, and a journey into an unknown and terrifying world begins. It is like leaving a bright, warm, comfortable room where one’s family is gathered and set out alone into a cold night, terrified, optimistic perhaps, but insecure.

In most people, the terror of death is based on one or more of the following factors:

• Fear of the actual moment of death.
• Fear of the unknown and undefined.
• Doubts about immortality.
• Unhappiness at the thought of leaving loved ones or being left by them.
• Primitive, deeply ingrained subconscious reactions to a violent death.
• The attachment of our state of consciousness to form.
• Ancient heretical doctrines about Heaven and Hell.

These people seem to forget that every night, during sleep, we die in the physical plane and are alive and active elsewhere. They forget that they practice leaving their earthly working vehicle because they cannot summon to their consciousness the memory of their consciousness transition and their activities on another plane. This is the main reason for people’s fear of death. Death is merely a more extended version of life (consciousness period) outside the physical plane than that which is known as sleep.  Death and sleep are aspects of the same process. The only difference is that the magnetized life thread, connected to the physical body, breaks in death but not sleep. When the line breaks, the unit of consciousness cannot return to its earthly working vehicle, and the body begins to dissolve into its constituent elements. From this, it is clear that death does not exist as the ordinary person thinks. Instead, it is merely the entrance to a fuller life and freedom from the physical body’s material weight.

For the spiritually undeveloped person, death is only sleep and forgetfulness because his mind is not sufficiently awake, and his experience is so small.

For the ordinary citizen, death is only the continuation of the life process in his state of consciousness, and his awareness is unchanged. He detects little change and, in some cases, no difference.

For the self-centered people, in whom cruelty and criminal tendencies reign, and those sometimes called “earth-bound,” previous incarnations bind them firmly. They continuously try in every way they can to contact the physical plane and return to it. A similar condition prevails in a few cases involving personal love directed towards those still alive or where the departed have not managed to discharge urgent duties.

For the aspirants and the spiritually advanced persons, death is an immediate entrance into the plane of service to humankind, where everything is familiar. During the hours of sleep, they have laid the foundations for their service and search for knowledge. Now, they can devote themselves entirely to their service work instead of using only the hours of sleep as before.