Kenopanishad
The ear of the ear, the mind of the mind, the speech of speech, and the life energy behind life energy. Being free [knowing this], the wise, on departing this field of experience, become immortal.
Immortality means the negation of death. But how can anything that begins not have an end? Every seed that sprouts is destined to become a tree that sees the end of its time. Every planet that forms is destined to also deform and un-form one day. Indeed, the very universe takes a great big breath and expands, puffing out its chest as the vast known expanse of the unknown, only to exhale and contract itself into apparent nothingness once more. If this is true for the universe, how could it not be for us, who inhabit this universe?
Understanding the true meaning of this requires us to ask a profound question: If everything that is born must die, and if it is even remotely possible that what the teacher is saying about becoming immortal may be true, then what does it actually mean to be born?
After 9 months in the mother's womb, a neonate emerges into this new world of sights, sounds, tastes, textures, and smells. An entirely new array of experiences meets this baby. But when exactly was the moment they were born? More specifically, when did they form their present constitution?
Was it when they came out of the mother's body? Of course not. The fetus was present in the uterus. So then, was it when the heartbeat was first detected in utero? No, because at that point the cells of that baby had already differentiated to a great extent to create cardiac activity. Okay, then was it when the sperm and egg came together to form the zygote–the single cell that is destined to become the trillions of cells of one organism? Perhaps we could say yes, but then where did the bodies of that sperm and that egg come from? Eventually we see that to answer this question, we will have to trace back the entire lineage of physicality itself.
Even if we go from generation to generation, we have to ask what sustains each generation, and this of course would be the body of the planet–the food coming from the planet itself. Then we must ask where the matter comes from that constitutes this planet. And of course this comes from cosmic dust. And where does this come from? Here we have to arrive at a great question at the ideological water cooler of mind and body.
What is this cosmos? Mental? Physical? Both? Neither? Something incomprehensible?
A simple question like when we were born, if thoroughly examined, takes us to the very deepest questions of life. Indeed, we are not sure how the universe itself was born. From what? What space was there for the birth to happen?
Thus we must reach the conclusion that there must be some potentiality that expresses itself in the rhythmic cycles of the expansion and contraction of the universe, of the revolution of the sun around the center of the Milky Way, and the subsequent revolutions of the planets around the Sun, as well as the planets spinning on their axes. It is also reflected in the revolutions of months that reset after 12 cycles, weeks that reset after 52 cycles, days that reset after about 30 cycles, and even hours that reset after 24 cycles, and so on. The entire magnificent tapestry is one rhythmic drum beat nested within another endlessly.
The coordinator of these magnificent drum beats is potentiality itself, which is not dissipated by its representation into form, just as infinity is never made finite despite the fact that it represents itself as the entire spectrum of numbers that are arrived at through separation, division, and limitation.
Put simply, the date on which your body was born depends on where you would like to draw the line of your body. Look closely and you will never be able to find that line, but for practical matters, we can generally agree that it was sometime between when the zygote was formed and the neonate emerged into this world. But this student is asking for something more than just a practical answer. They've studied all the practical answers. They know all the practical answers. What they want is truth, or at least something that is so vastly more true than the practical answers that it changes the very experience of what is considered practical.
It is to such a mind that the teacher advises that departing this world, meaning going beyond the standard stories and perceptions, is grounds for immortality, which is realizing one's infinite nature beyond all form. No doubt, when the body falls away, the experience shifts, but the fundamental change is not whether one is with the body or not, but rather how deep our recognition is. This is why trying to escape the body or ignore it generally doesn't work, though this misinterpretation is rampant. It's not about escaping, ignoring, or going somewhere else, but rather seeing right through what has always been in front of and behind our eyes.
Tomorrow, we continue the adventure.
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