Who Are We?

Humans are the only creatures on earth - at least this is what humans think - who are aware of their own mortality. We are finite, & being conscious of our finitude we quest for immortality.

True, on one level we realize that even after our physical demise we will continue to exist as part of the whole, as part of the ecosystem. And we understand that just as the whole of the universe can never be lost; matter can not fall out of the universe, & the idea of total annihilation is scientifically & logically impossible, but that perpetuation is not us. What we want to know is, will we - who we are now, exist eternally & individually? And if so, how?

What is the future if not a distant present. What is now may well be a harbinger of what will be. If we wish to know what will be, we must delve deeper into what is. What becomes of us after the mortal body passes on? This question is but an extension of the broader question, who are we?

Our physical life journey begins at conception; we develop rapidly as an embryo in our mother’s womb. A miniscule germ of possibility, but in no way inanimate or unintelligent. In the Talmudic tradition we are told that prior to birth, we are infused with the totality of wisdom. We are trained to gather information from within. The underlying premise being, that what we know is already given to us, & not apprehended through our senses. We are sensitized to our inner voice, our soul. Yet, at the awesome moment of birth an angel appears & gently presses the upper lip causing an indentation & the erasure of all memory.

We open our eyes & find ourselves in an Olam Haphuch - an inverted world. Here we are told that only that which can be felt with our physical senses, is reality. Slowly, with the relentless passing of time, we become an intimate part of this three dimensional universe, where what is real must also be physical. We believe that only that which can be seen is the absolute truth. Our senses become our source of knowledge.

As young children we develop self-awareness, we explore our growing body in awe. We are told that this appendage is called a hand, while this is a foot, & so on. Each part is categorized & labeled. We are fascinated by our discoveries, & as we grow older, our fascination takes on a form of worship. We look deeply into the mirror & see only our body, the soul has been forgotten. We begin to identify with the bulb that carriers the light, instead of seeing ourselves as the light which the bulb is but a vehicle.

Inside, while in the embrace of the womb, we knew with certainty that we are more than physicality. We knew, long before our bodies were fully formed, that the body is but a shell, a temporary habitat for the soul.

The Empiricists did not have it quite right. The mind - psyche - soul is not “a blank sheet of paper upon which experience alone can subsequently write.” Rather, ‘essence precedes existence.’ Each person is born with a distinct soul. The soul is our higher self, the self of our potential and possibilities, the part of us that stands above ego, selfishness, aggression & resentment. Our soul is the one who observes life, the inner self that witnesses your life. The soul is the background of our being, the light that masters our thoughts, emotions & actions. And this soul, which is who we really are, is paradoxically a colored sheet of paper - an essence, upon which life’s experiences will write & can brighten. So who are we now? We are the space in which life experiences occur, we are the sum total of soul plus life experience.

The dilemma of death, & the age-old question of what becomes of us in that ‘final’ state, is almost superfluous, for we are a soul, & that soul is eternal. We are born with our unique & immortal soul, it is who we really are, & our souls live on forever. Throughout the journey of life, the essence of who we are, our soul, accumulates experiences; knowledge, feelings, relationships & all that made us uniquely individual. When a person’s body ceases to function, the loss is only of the physical vehicle. The corporeal entity which gave the soul the opportunity to materialize actions & accomplish physical deeds experiences a rearrangement of its elements. Yet, what lives on, as an individual, is our soul.

Death is a retransformation to the original state of soul, with a difference, however. The soul is now an individual person’s unique soul, replete with life experience, as distinct as the one who possessed it. The symphony of our life experiences is indelibly imprinted in our memory. This memory lives on as part of the collective memory of the omnipresence, in the spiritual state of Bina. Paradoxically, in this lofty condition, the individual soul continues to exist as both part of the whole, part of The Infinite, while maintaining its finitude & individuality. This contradiction violates our linear way of thinking, & seems to us illogical. Welcome to a universe of spirituality where anomaly is logical & parody reasonable.

It is empowering & true, that when we deeply desire a glimpse into that universe, we need only live life today in an integrated & harmonious way, & as such, experience the future within the present. We have the power to see a world bathed in the infinite, if we but expand our vision & cleanse the doors of our perception. To observe as a poet once did, “a world in a Grain of Sand / & a Heaven in a Wild Flower / Hold infinity in the palm of your hand / & eternity in an hour.”

G-d Bless.

J