What is the philosophical view of death? Since September 11, I cannot understand why God allows all this suffering?
The tragic deaths that have occurred on September 11 are a shock to our thinking. It is though, not a shock to our Soul. At the time of death the Soul is released and allowed to return from where it came. Human nature assumes that death is bad and a form of punishment. It is not. If there weren't death, life on earth would be a permanent hell.
Death offers one another chance, a removing from an "impossible to evolve" situation. It is a release from this burden of flesh and its manifestations, and a cleansing of the mortal rust which we have contacted. Death holds only a release for the Soul in question, and it is usually those who are left behind, still embodied, who seem to suffer most. When I see people crying at funerals, they are not usually crying for the deceased. They are usually crying for themselves and the perceived loss.
Death is a release that is not within our power to decide when it arrives, we must leave this to God and accept it. When Death occurs it is not a punishment, a sentence a recrimination, it is a common fate we all share. In order to do justice to the dead we should consider their Souls and not its servant, the Body.
All we have is NOW. The poet Omar Khayyam writes,
Oh, come with old Khayyam, and leave the Wise to talk;
One thing is certain, that Life flies;
One thing is certain, and the Rest is Lies:
The Flower that once has blown for ever dies.
God has not abandoned us. Each one of you also knows about suffering...no one is spared. It is not what we bear or what we suffer. It is how we live it that counts. We have been given life, and it is what we make of it that ultimately allows us to become free from it. The secret becomes known to people who first see and understand that they are not the body but what resides inside it. Slowly they make plans, perfect their wisdom, and practice their art. Anytime people mistake the Body for the Soul they will stumble and may have to start again.
Mr. Mervyn Brady, founder of The Academy of European Arts and Culture, is an international teacher and lecturer on philosophy and spiritual studies. He has spent the past 30 years researching Western art, philosophy and mysticism. The Academy is a school based on the awakening and nourishment of the Soul. It is located in London, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Austin, and Mexico.
