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Preparing for Death – Life’s Inevitable Transition
You can prepare for it but no matter who you are you will feel the pain of letting go of this birth. It’s like duct tape slowly being pulled off a hairy arm. Countless magnetic energetic cords break as they are forcefully detached from what they were connected to.
When you live in a physical body for a long time it’s only natural you build an attachment to it, to the life that you have just lived, and the people and things associated with it.
I said bye, not good bye, to a very dear friend on November 19th. Five minutes before I got on stage to speak to a group of entrepreneurs her son called me to tell me she was dying. I stepped out of the hall and spoke to her, and an hour later, while I was giving my talk, she passed away. I said bye not good bye because I know I’ll see her again. Death is not the end. It’s a transition from one state to another. That is the Hindu view of life’s inevitable experience.
Two months earlier, fortunately for me, I had already made plans to be in the city she lived in for a week. I took this opportunity to visit her almost every day. She was so grateful to have me there and I was so grateful to be there as someone who loved her, and to help her prepare for this transition. She’s a mature soul. An old soul as some people would say. Why? Because of how she approached her impending death. By the way, we decided not to use the word death and instead replace it with the word transition. Few people approach their transition with such grace and courage as she did.
She asked me if I could help her prepare for this transition. She wanted to learn more about it. What is the Hindu view of transition, how best to prepare for it and anything else that I could share.
We focused on three areas:
1. How to wrap up the current life – the more karma you can resolve before you transition the less “baggage” you carry into the next life. We looked into how to do this inwardly and outwardly.
2. How to prepare for transition – in the days and hours leading up to transition, and the moment of transition, what is the inner preparation.
3. How to plan for the next life – this life only leads into the next. We talked about how to manifest the life that is best for our spiritual progress in our next birth.
When you understand and know that you are a soul living in a physical body you realize that it is only the physical body that gets left behind in this transition. The soul, having shed the body, now functions in the astral plane awaiting its next birth. The key is to resolve as much of the past as possible, exit with intention and grace, and with a clear plan for the next birth.
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The 3 States of Mind
Someone recently asked me the following question on the three phases of the mind and I thought I’d share my response. I am curious to know – do you think the 3 phases of the mind (instinctive, intellectual and intuitive) can ever operate in harmony, or are they in eternal conflict by ...
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Meditating, starting a business, falling in love and other how-tos
It’s been six whole months since I have blogged. That was the longest hiatus I have taken since I started blogging shortly after leaving the monastery 7 years ago. In that time lots have happened. One of the biggest developments is that I have a brand new website. You’re looking at it...
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Adelaide’s progressive accounting company turns inward
Adelaide, South Australia. On August 24th this year I was invited to Adelaide by Altitude Advisory to conduct a full day workshop to its team and clients. Altitude Advisory is an accounting firm based in South Australia’s capital that provide consultation on profitability, cashflow, growth,...
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A Retreat for Entrepreneurs
I conduct workshops and retreats regularly for a range of people, organizations and companies around the world but I have to say that I love working with EO (Entrepreneurs’ Organization) forum groups. EO Forums consists of 7 to 10 entrepreneurs that meet monthly to offer one another directi...
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Shaping the land of our Spiritual Sanctuary
Nosara, Costa Rica. It’s been over 6 months since our last visit here and we arrived in Nosara late afternoon after a long drive from our search for plants in the towns of Alajuela and Arenal. We have a lot planned for the next week. Day 1 and 2 will be spent marking out where…
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The search for exotic plants
Alajuela & Arenal, Costa Rica. It’s that time of the year again when we head down to Costa Rica to work on the development of our spiritual sanctuary. Since it is the beginning of the rainy season our focus at this time of the year is always planting. Our vision is to one day have…
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