CapeConversation

The Afterlife

Last Sunday we met at the Brands and Mariza led us in a reflection on the afterlife. Rather than sermonizing, she chose to give us the task of constructing a collage of our thoughts and feelings on the subject.

What do we think happens to us when we die? What would we like to see happen? How do we feel about it? Is there life after life after death?

To the sound of The Lama’s Chant we worked on our collages and then each participant got the chance to explain their pictures to the rest of the group.

The range of beliefs, thoughts and feelings about the afterlife were fascinating, but throughout the discussion profound respect was given to the very personal reflections.

I can’t remember what everyone said, but here follow some snippets…

Roger Witter chose to reflect on his life thus far, with death and the beyond remaining a big question mark. Anna spoke intimately of the levels and layers of conciousness that are already within our grasp of experiencing and that death merely extends that reach. Roger Saner focussed on the hope for the material restoration of creation and pondered on what we will eat on the new earth! Danya shared that for her death could simply be the end of life, but that she was also attracted to the idea of reincarnation. Andrew and Ann depicted the flight of the soul into the beautiful, blue beyond. Theresa designed an infinity symbol. Nic constructed a koan reflecting the paradox and absurdity of pondering the afterlife. Mariza created a multi-dimensional picture, with visceral sworls of crayon reflecting her feelings about life after death. I spoke about my attraction to both Buddhist ideas of becoming one with universal conciousness and Tom Wright’s ideas of the new earth and expressed the hope that both, contradicting states will become a reality in the hereafter.

I think we all found it liberating to talk about death and life after death, without doctrinal restrictions of what we are ‘supposed’ to believe, and recognizing that whatever lies beyond death is a beautiful, paradoxical mystery.