Nothing can come into being or be sustained without the union of opposite forces: male and female, life and death, day and night, joy and suffering, yin and yang… Between each of these pairs of opposites, there can be union, balance, harmony and truths, or there can be discord, intolerance, imbalance and disunity if one of the two forces is out of balance with the other. What would cause opposite forces to be out of balance? The answer is simple: fear creates imbalance, love creates balance. Think about a simple pare of opposites: male and female. If you are in a relationship, you can easily understand and appreciate how love keeps the relationship balanced, while fear – often fear of loss of the relationship itself, causes all kinds of imbalance. These fears can cause jealousy, possessiveness, or can cause one to shut down their hearts to the other, resulting in “falling out of love.” When the love between the two is unconditional, harmony in the relationship is then possible. So it is with all opposites. The harmony, balance and union between the two can only be found in love.
Let’s look at a pair of opposites which are a little harder for most to reconcile: life and death. Although most of us may wish there was no such thing as death, let’s play out that scenario for a minute. If there is no death, we cannot grow because our cells cannot die and renew themselves. We cannot eat. The caterpillar cannot become a butterfly, in fact nothing can happen at all. Nothing can evolve, nothing can change, nothing can be born because nothing can die. Death is the opposing force that creates life and gives it meaning. Death is what sets everything in motion. This universe was created from the union of life and death.
All that said, I’m now going to say something that will seem completely paradoxical but bear with me: there is no death. Everything is energy, and energy cannot be created or destroyed. That means that everything is eternal. So in that sense there is no true death. The problem is in the way in which we think of death. We think of it as an end, when in actuality it is a transformation. Thus, death in the way that most of us think of it does not exist. It does exist as the force which transforms energy from one form into another. Death is not something to be feared; just as a caterpillar should not fear becoming a butterfly. Our fear of death is what causes us to become out of balance with life, since fear is the root of imbalance. Learn to love death – not as the end – but as the gateway to new beginnings, as the impetus of new creation, and life becomes more joyous, as it was meant to be.
-Rhea Jamil
Journey to the Eden Within 