" Life After Life...................."

Life After Life...........
(Sat, August 30, 2008 - 10:07 AM)


Trees lose their leaves and branches in autumn, appearing bare and barren. Plants wither and die, leaving the earth's surface coarse and arid. Farmers plant seeds by burying them into the ground. Rain and snowfall, leaving everything cold and desolate.On the branches of trees, there is no sign of bird nests.

When spring arrives, rain and snow turn into springs and rivers. Planted seeds sprout from the earth's crust, unravel ling themselves. Bare tree branches find their new garment in leaves and blossoms. And throughout their fields, green grass, wild weeds and colorful flowers decorate one's heart. Birds find new life, nesting on branches. Creation is renovated. New faces and new activities, latent with potential, emerge in a new light.

This cycle repeats itself. Without the planted seed, there will be no life. Without the cold and harsh winter, there will be no effulgent spring.

All things gradually unfold themselves and demonstrate their inner capabilities. Thus, existence perpetuates. Every year, we witness this awakening as if we ourselves are also a part of it.

Perhaps a child who sees a seed planted in the earth, oblivious to the order of nature, is not able to grasp the meaning of spring. If one tells him that the seed will germinate in a few months, he might not believe it.

Rather, he might think that the seed will rot. But with the arrival of spring, with the growth of plants, flowers and trees, he will come to believe that not everything which lies underneath the earth's crust will be useless. The planted seed actually germinates.

The rejuvenation found in spring may also be found in the cycle of human existence - in Resurrection. Following man's death and his burial in the earth, a rejuvenation, a new life awaits him.

Eternal life awaits the sunset of this earthly existence. Man unchains himself from the fetters of the mundane, losing his worldly garment in the same manner that trees lose their leaves and branches; he loses the self and draws nearer to God.

In order for man to reach eternal life, he must rid himself of all satanic temptations.

Those who question ma'ad (after life) and see physical death as the end of man's existence, are the children who see the burial of the seed, but not the manifestation of spring.

Spring, the renovation of Nature, is a symbolic manifestation of heavenly glory, with the difference that a theophany or heavenly manifestation of spring.

No one can see the after life with ordinary eyes, and no heart or mind can fathom its depths.

According to Rumi, "If you see it rooting, then see it grow."