Inside a break up second, I swerved proper. Jolted into alertness, my coronary heart beat like a drum, and perspiration beaded on my brow. Releasing my held breath, I adjusted the rearview mirror.
As a crowd gathered, some helped up the fallen motorbiker. Others restocked his gunny luggage. The stray bull he’d rammed into was nowhere in sight. The sheer synchronicity that saved the motorist’s life awed me into silence.
My SUV’s steering mode. The street’s width. My steering hand’s response time. The stray bull’s zigzag path. The muddy U-turn’s location. The fallen motorbiker’s skidding distance. The response time of the automobile driver in entrance of me.
Had any of them differed even by a hair’s breadth, I’d have blood on my arms — or be within the ER with a wrecked automobile.
As my coronary heart’s drumming slowed, Einstein’s legendary quote zoomed into my psychological view: “God doesn’t play cube with the universe.“
In A Temporary Historical past Of Time, Stephen Hawking explains how our universe wasn’t random — however designed and “fine-tuned” by intentional intelligence. Be it the velocity of sunshine or an electron’s cost. Basic constants are hyper-specific numbers.
As Dr. David Deutsch from Oxford College explains, “If we nudge certainly one of these constants only a few p.c in a single route, stars burn out inside 1,000,000 years, and there’s no time for evolution. If we nudge it within the different route, no components heavier than helium type. No carbon, no life. Not even any chemistry. No complexity in any respect.”
As The Nature of Area and Time explains, our universe’s enlargement price was fine-tuned to the 0.0000000000th decimal level! So, our universe isn’t chaotic or haphazard. A cosmic intelligence past human comprehension designed it. Because the Astrophysicist Hoyle stated — it’s as if “a super-intellect has monkeyed with physics.”
When an uncannily (un)favorable coincidence occurs, we write it off as (unhealthy or) good luck. Nevertheless it’s cosmic orchestration — method too intricate for human logic.
“Coincidence is the phrase we use after we can’t see the levers and pulleys.” ― Emma Bull
The whole lot occurs for a motive — and I quickly came upon why my near-kill incident did.
Musing over constants, synchronicity, and cosmic will, I tiptoed into the meditation corridor. “Phew! Glad I didn’t miss the Kriya,” I sighed as I sat within the half-lotus pose.
Quick-forward half-hour. Crescendoing in fast breaths, the Sudarshan Kriya ended with gradual deep breaths. Imbibing my Beej Matra (Seed chant), I went into Sahaj Samadhi (“Easy” meditation). Ten minutes in, my ft throbbed — so I re-imbibed the mantra.
Then, it occurred.
Hovering close to the ceiling, “I” witnessed my very own physique and all the meditation corridor under.
It lasted a nano-second however seared the reminiscence into my thoughts for all times. This “I” was immobile, formless, inconsiderate, timeless — concurrently inside and outdoors my sculpture-still physique.
Be it Hinduism’s Advaita Vedanta or Taoism’s Wu Wei, non-dualists describe it as — You dissolve. Actuality dissolves. Solely consciousness prevails.
Whereas my physique didn’t dissolve, it felt “Hole And Empty” — like a human-shaped ceramic vase that homes the flower of life.
Enjoyable Reality: “Hole-And-Empty” was a way in AOL’s superior meditation course. However my ignorant self had mocked and made it the butt of numerous jokes. Don’t rule one thing out simply since you don’t know it (but).
This may sound woo-woo or really feel like an phantasm — however that one nanosecond felt extra strong than my 23 years of “life.”
I can’t show it or persuade you to consider me. However I can encourage you to begin meditating, be constant, and discover out for your self. One of the best proof is your personal expertise. Even in case you don’t have an out-of-body expertise, you’ll expertise a number of different advantages.
Virtually taking a life snapped me awake to the sheer frailty of human life.
Strolling previous a sand truck, I visualized how the squeaky backdoor may snap and smash my face to a pulp. Extra so, I noticed how near demise we get in our day by day lives:
- Driving — aka hurtling inside (and dodging different) 2000-lb metallic bullets.
- Visiting a salon — aka a stranger with a blade close to your temples/throat.
- Crossing the street — aka the play zone of 2000+ lb metallic bullets.
- Consuming out — aka stranger-cooked meals doubtlessly laced with poison.
- Sleeping beneath a ceiling fan — aka sharp rotating blades overhead.
The Closing Vacation spot films masterfully present how regular occasions can have deadly penalties.
Regardless of tightrope-walking with demise, we’re blissfully unaware of it — all because of evolution. If we have been always conscious of our demise, we’d be too paranoid to dwell. However this lack of information results in the phantasm that we’ve perpetually.
We postpone our unrealized goals, unsolved grudges, and unmet family members for tomorrow — unaware that tomorrow may by no means come.
“We now have two lives; the second begins after we notice we solely have one.” — Confucious
Recognizing this, the sensible Stoics got here up with Memento Mori — Latin for “Keep in mind that it’s important to die.”
By recalling the inevitability of demise, we dwell extra deliberately.
To cite Seneca in his Letters, “Allow us to put together our minds as if we’d come to the very finish of life. Allow us to postpone nothing. Allow us to stability life’s books every day … The one who places the ending touches on their life every day is rarely wanting time.”
My Memento Mori is my forearm tattoo — the cranium spear of demise reducing by means of the infinite ouroboros.
Picture | Courtesy Of Creator
What’s your Memento Mori? Don’t have one but? Get a hoop, necklace, wall poster, or cellphone wallpaper to remind your self of demise — or tattoo in case you’re excessive like I’m.
Here is one thing intriguing to ponder over: Within the ebook They Each Die at The Finish, Demise-Solid informs folks 24 hours earlier than their demise — and provides particular privileges to benefit from their final day.
Let’s put Demise Solid on steroids.
Say you may know while you’d die 48 hours, every week, a yr prior — and even proper at start. How completely different would you reside life? How early in life would you wish to know your demise date? Would such data be miserable or liberating?
Neeramitra Reddy is a 12x Medium High Author, Chief Editor/Columnist for In Health And In Well being (IFAIH), and a Columnist for Wholistique.
This text was initially revealed at Medium. Reprinted with permission from the creator.
