(Continued from Part 1.)
Now what’s this we hear about a “second death”? Well, lots of people talk about it. The first conversation about the subject concerns enlightenment. Jesus said we would not be hurt of the second death. Let me just cut and paste from The Purpose of Life is Enlightenment on what I think Jesus meant by the second death:
“In fact, we shall find Jesus (and his disciple, Paul), referring to two types of ‘death’ and two types of ‘resurrection.’ The first is ego death and is followed by the resurrection of enlightenment. The second is physical death and is followed by the resurrection of the afterlife. They often do not tell us when they are referring to the first and when to the second, a practice which may sometimes prove confusing.
“For example, Jesus said to a would-be disciple: ‘Let the dead bury their dead.’ (Luke 9:60. ) Here he uses the word ‘dead’ to cover two situations. The first is the situation of the unenlightened; all of us who are not alive in the resurrection of enlightenment. The second is the situation of the deceased, those whose physical bodies are dead but who are alive in the resurrection of the afterlife. If we were to put his teaching another way, we might say, let the unenlightened, who believe in physical death, bury the bodies of those they think have died.” (19)
So if we experience the first death, or the death of the ego or self in enlightenment, while we yet live, then the second death of the physical body will not hurt us in any way because we will consciously and intentionally drop the body prior to death. (See photo of Adyashanti, above, for a look at one who is liberated from the need to reincarnate.)
A second conversation about a second death concerns the death of the astral body and our emergence in the mental body upon our entry into the Mental Plane. (It’s actually a little after our entry into the Mental Plane, but that’s too fine a detail to concern us here.) (20)
Remember that the Astral Plane in spirit is the equivalent of what we call the Fourth Dimension and the Mental Plane is the equivalent of what we call the Fifth Dimension.
But we (that is, everyone reading this article) will ascend and so our bodies will not “die” as the astral body does on the other side during the rise from Astral to Mental Planes.
So these are two meanings of the“second death.” There are more but they needn’t concern us here.
Last matter: immortality. We are always, always, always already immortal. What Jesus meant when he said that we shall attain immortality was not that we will somehow cheat death. We always, always, always cheat death. He meant that we shall, through becoming enlightened in the experience of sahaja samadhi, (21) not need to descend any more into matter and material bodies again. We shall return to the temple of spirit and go no more out, as he said in Revelation. (22)
However, even if we need go no more out (that is, reincarnate), that does not mean that we are not always, already immortal. We are. You will never die. There is no death. Death hath no sting. Death is not triumphant over us. We are triumphant over it, always, already, forever.
So to summarize, death is not a painful event for most people. We seldom experience a cessation or even a temporary loss of consciousness, except perhaps a recuperative period for those who have been ill prior to departing. The new bodies we find ourselves in are infinitely more acceptable to us than our old. We need not fear death, period. That is the last word on death. Domine, domine. Let there be no further fear of death.
Footnotes
(19) At https://www.angelfire.com/space2/light11/reincarn.html
(20) On “The Second Death, see here https://www.angelfire.com/space2/light11/nmh/second-death1.html
(21) On sahaja samadhi as liberation from the cycle of reincarnation, see Enlightenment – (4) Stages beyond God Realization (Brahmajnana) – Liberation occurs at sahaja nirvikalpa samadhi
(22) Rev. 3:12. “Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out.” That is, him that attains enlightenment (sahaja samadhi) will God relieve of the necessity of any more leaving the kingdom of spirit and descending into matter.