In the course of human thought, one of the most persistent and profound inquiries has been to question the nature of existence itself — what does it mean “to be”?

If we can accept that ‘to be’ is ‘to be alive’, what then does that mean?  And, conversely then, what does it mean ‘to be dead’?  In death, do we cease to exist?  In life and death, how does the nature of reality dictate what and who we are?

Years ago, I studied for a Masters in Writing and as part of that degree I had the joy of exploring the world of poetry.  During that time I wrote a few pieces addressing these existential issues and mostly I would work and rework a poem over weeks, sometimes months, honing and polishing it.  Sometimes, though, a poem arrived fully formed, as if pre-written by someone or something else and then given to me to write down.  This (untitled) piece, below, was one such poem.

“Not I, the death I entered through,
That doorway from or doorway to,
That lies betwixt and between
The Uncreated and the Seen.”

This simple stanza stayed with me for a long time, as I unpacked its meaning for me, and it served to be an insight into the nature of life and death and identity.

Symbol of Infinity

Firstly, the ‘Uncreated’ and the ‘Seen’ seemed to me to be two opposite worlds, or whorls of the sideways figure 8, which is the symbol of infinity. This symbol, to me, represents these two worlds of the seen and the unseen, with the ‘Uncreated’ in one whorl and the ‘Seen’ in the other.  It occurred to me, pondering the stanza that had been ‘gifted’ to me, that the ‘Uncreated’ is the ‘Void’. The Void in this context is not a mere emptiness or nihilistic absence; instead it is the place from where all manifestations come, the origin of all forms, the realm of ‘pure potentiality’.  The ‘Seen’ is the manifested world, and the material world, by contrast, is the realm of quantification, form, and perceived limitation.

The sideways figure 8 offered a framework for exploring the duality of the Void and the manifested worlds; the loops of the figure 8 represented the path we traverse in the ongoing cyclical nature of moving from the seen world in life, crossing through the ‘x’ in the middle of the 8 into death, into the unseen realm.  And again, leaving the unseen realm of the Void, through the ‘x’ in the middle of the 8, except now this ‘doorway from or doorway to’ was not death, but birth. 

Rather than reducing the human experience to a linear progression from life to death, the stanza spoke to a more complex, cyclical understanding of existence. Instead of the conventional dichotomy of dead versus alive, it said instead that human identity is inherently eternal.  That we are immortal.

The Cyclical Nature of Existence

Traditional Western thought leans into the Aristotelian idea of a defined beginning and an end.  But the cyclical view with the sideways figure 8, or the infinity symbol embodying this idea, points to the infinite. 

In aligning the imagery of the sideways 8 with the notion of a cyclical cosmos, the stanza suggests that existence is a dynamic interplay between states, reminiscent of the ancient concept of samsara found in Hindu and Buddhist thought. 

The endless cycle of birth, death, and rebirth found in these traditions does not signify a linear march to oblivion, but rather the perpetual unfolding of eternity.

Friedrich Schiller noted, “In every act of life there is a process of dissolution and renewal” (Schiller, 1795).  In his 1965 song, ‘It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)’, Bob Dylan sang that “he not busy being born is busy dying”.

If we can see that there are growth benefits to an evolving cyclical state, I would add that instead of a flat 2D image of the sideways 8 to best represent this evolution, a better image would be of a 3D form; the sideways figure 8 interlinked and layered, like a spiral of the DNA helix.

Identity

In this light, the poem’s assertion that “Not I, the death I entered through” can be seen as an action, not an identity; I am not the death that I experienced.  Similarly, we can assume “That doorway from or doorway to” is a door to death or its opposite, which would be birth, and that birth, too, is an action, not an identity.  We are not who we are physically, in life or death.

In other words, the “Not I” says, whether I am alive or dead, this is not my identity.  So, if we see our identity as transcending the physicality of life and death entirely, who are we?  This small shift allows us to see our aliveness in our eternal selves, in our immortality. 

Who Are We at the Immortal Level? 

So. If our identity is not mortal, that our physicality is a transient experience that our immortal selves are having, then who are we at the immortal level? The answer is ‘the ever-evolving soul that weaves throughout our lifetimes, raising in consciousness as it goes, plus the divine Higher Self to which that soul is intricately and innately bound’. 

So, that means that we are both the consciousness that exists in the physical realm, but that we have a higher consciousness too, our divine selves, that exists at a much higher frequency, in a non-physical realm, that is also us. It means that our identity transcends dimensions. It also means that we are much more than our everyday experience would have us believe.

The fun part starts when we realise this truth, and its significance, that we are not just ‘here and now’ consciousness, and that we can learn how to be here while also opening up and accessing this higher awareness and merge the two!! The consciousness of the soul in this lifetime can come forward and tell the mind to be stilled, and it can then access the Higher Self to draw down divine consciousness, merge the two, so that we bring our Higher Self awareness into our lives in physical form. 

This is the method through which we can bring ‘Heaven to Earth’. 

The Eternal Self Evolving

The life and death rhythms of the in breath and the out breath, the tidal flow, the interplay between the seen and the unseen, the constant change, might feel cruel or unnecessary.  On the contrary, it keeps life-force and consciousness moving and growing.  

The mystic Rumi once said, “The wound is the place where the Light enters you”, meaning that moments of perceived loss or ending or death are in fact openings through which the eternal is revealed.  Similarly, in the teachings of Jiddu Krishnamurti, the emphasis is placed on the understanding that the self is not a static entity, but an ever-evolving process. Krishnamurti said that by observing our own mental processes without judgment, we become aware of the state of flux that appears to define our being.  The pre-Socratic philosopher Heraclitus famously asserted, “No man ever steps in the same river twice,” implying that change is not just inevitable but is fundamental to the nature of being.

This synthesis is not merely a metaphysical abstraction; it has significant implications for how we conceive of identity, ethics, and the human condition. The endless growth of existence may serve as a call to cultivate resilience, adaptability, and a sense of timeless presence in the face of a fleeting, transient life.

We stand at a perpetual threshold, where the worlds of the Void and the materialised world are not antagonistic, but complementary.  In truth, the worlds of the seen and unseen are enmeshed, not entirely separate. 

Building upon propositions in previous blogs that the masculine and feminine in the individual self must come back together and work symbiotically, this ‘life-death-identity stanza’ invites us to embrace life with an integrated understanding between opposing but interdependent forces.

Life is Buzzing

The nature of reality is that life is everywhere, it is integrated and it is buzzing.  From the infinitesimal to the cosmos, the nature of life is that it exists in the landscape, in the depths of the sea, in the ether and under our fingernails.  Life is everywhere and it is all a manifestation of Source (All That Is).  And we belong to it, in it, and with it and it to us.  We cannot exist outside of it because we are manifestations of the Greater Intelligence that is All That Is, and by definition there is nothing outside of that.

As you continue your own exploration of the mysteries of existence, I invite you to open yourself into the integrated perspective discussed in this blog.  As part of this cosmic dance within which we all belong, existence is an eternal, cyclical process rather than a series of terminal events.  The apparent boundaries of life and death are constructs that if we didn’t ponder on them, they might limit our understanding of the deeper, inexhaustible nature of being. 

Blessings to all on the path.