Growing up there was a funeral protocol program that everyone followed in my town and it was basically because of the organised religions, mine being of the catholic doctrine, and community reflections. Before I came into my awareness of all that has played out in my life especially around the death of a family member, or anyone’s death for that matter, all deaths had the same funeral protocol. |
Living in a small community with other small communities stretched out around us, we knew, or our parents knew everyone and so when someone died everyone mourned basically in the same way and if they did not, then they were pointed out and “God help him or her when he or she dies”.
It was a massive production from the moment we heard of a death up to and including the service and burial and for a while after.
Life stood still when someone died as we were not allowed to do anything, as children, such as playing games, singing songs or anything that was fun or joyful.
We all had to mourn out of respect for the person and their family. In those times, everyone who died was given a wake in their home, and all other events were cancelled no matter how much preparation had been put into them.
Most of the family members wore black – why black I never understood. Even after the service family members were supposed to mourn their dead relative for weeks or for an extended stretch of time – receiving sympathy and grief from all around them. Conversations were based around the whole happening, especially if it was a so-called ‘prominent’ person in the community.
There were the visits to the graveyard to pray to the deceased and ask them for help to be a better person as the fear of death and what came after that – heaven, hell, or worse still, purgatory where you suffered unbearably never to get to heaven – was melded into our consciousness!
I can remember the horrible feeling in the community with everyone pitying the family who was left behind, and wondering how they were going to go on without their dead relative. Feeling sorry for the families plus all the gossip that went around about those people with everyone adding their part to make it look even worse than it was, was expected behaviour. The saying, ‘Misery Loves Company’ sure was a part of many communities!
I had carried this entrenched protocol of burying and grieving for the dead in my body for a long time believing this is how it must be.
When I review what it was like back where I lived as a child, everything was based out of fear – where did all this begin and who was in control of it continuing? It kept people down on themselves and made them attend church services, more to get back in the good graces of God out of fear we may be the next one to die. We dare not want to be caught-out doing something horrendous, like walk on the same side of the road as the priest in our parish as he was so much closer to God than us kids. We had to bow our heads as we passed him and say “Hello Father”.
There was no mention of a loving God, only a punishing one and how could we ever get it right when we are all born sinners? Hence why a priest had so much power – he could take away our sins through baptism and confession. Mourning, sympathy, grief, guilt, pity, shame, regret all hold hands in many areas of our lives yet especially around death and even more so when someone takes their own life.
As I grew older and made choices for myself, I began to see a lot of the belief systems I was under as lies, deceit and division and I saw things much more clearly and differently. Yet not until I met a man named Serge Benhayon did I truly feel the truth of life and the truth of death and the cycle that continues over and over again.
It was so great to hear someone say to you what you felt all along yet were too afraid to say it out of fear of what would happen to you.
I have become so much more aware within my body that health does not only have to do with the physicality but the whole of the human being. This registered awareness of a healthy life includes feeling and understanding that we are all the same within and the choices we make at every moment reflect in our bodies and affect everything and everyone continuously.
Living with this understanding reveals what kind of relationship one has with oneself, with God, and with humanity as a whole. We live and die and return accordingly.
The great beauty is that nobody is left out nor left behind. We are all given the exact same awareness and we all come to this understanding within our self in our own time and space. Life is either living love or not living love, and we have this choice in very moment.
As for me, I choose to live by the Ancient Wisdom Teachings brought through Universal Medicine by Serge Benhayon.
These teachings are accelerating my understanding that life is a continuum and that I am responsible for my choices and I am not here to save anyone or wait to be saved by anyone.
Every single one of us is given equal understanding with the innate knowing that we are much more than our physical presence.
The physicality fades away to nothingness or dust yet the being-ness of the human continues on its path of return.
This is why I have no fear around dying, it is the same as going to sleep and waking up to another glorious morning. Simple yet true, the way I live today reflects the way I live tomorrow which will be the way I will die and return to live again.
How we live and how we prepare for dying is our responsibility.
Elizabeth D., Nova Scotia, Canada
It was a massive production from the moment we heard of a death up to and including the service and burial and for a while after.
Life stood still when someone died as we were not allowed to do anything, as children, such as playing games, singing songs or anything that was fun or joyful.
We all had to mourn out of respect for the person and their family. In those times, everyone who died was given a wake in their home, and all other events were cancelled no matter how much preparation had been put into them.
Most of the family members wore black – why black I never understood. Even after the service family members were supposed to mourn their dead relative for weeks or for an extended stretch of time – receiving sympathy and grief from all around them. Conversations were based around the whole happening, especially if it was a so-called ‘prominent’ person in the community.
There were the visits to the graveyard to pray to the deceased and ask them for help to be a better person as the fear of death and what came after that – heaven, hell, or worse still, purgatory where you suffered unbearably never to get to heaven – was melded into our consciousness!
I can remember the horrible feeling in the community with everyone pitying the family who was left behind, and wondering how they were going to go on without their dead relative. Feeling sorry for the families plus all the gossip that went around about those people with everyone adding their part to make it look even worse than it was, was expected behaviour. The saying, ‘Misery Loves Company’ sure was a part of many communities!
I had carried this entrenched protocol of burying and grieving for the dead in my body for a long time believing this is how it must be.
When I review what it was like back where I lived as a child, everything was based out of fear – where did all this begin and who was in control of it continuing? It kept people down on themselves and made them attend church services, more to get back in the good graces of God out of fear we may be the next one to die. We dare not want to be caught-out doing something horrendous, like walk on the same side of the road as the priest in our parish as he was so much closer to God than us kids. We had to bow our heads as we passed him and say “Hello Father”.
There was no mention of a loving God, only a punishing one and how could we ever get it right when we are all born sinners? Hence why a priest had so much power – he could take away our sins through baptism and confession. Mourning, sympathy, grief, guilt, pity, shame, regret all hold hands in many areas of our lives yet especially around death and even more so when someone takes their own life.
As I grew older and made choices for myself, I began to see a lot of the belief systems I was under as lies, deceit and division and I saw things much more clearly and differently. Yet not until I met a man named Serge Benhayon did I truly feel the truth of life and the truth of death and the cycle that continues over and over again.
It was so great to hear someone say to you what you felt all along yet were too afraid to say it out of fear of what would happen to you.
I have become so much more aware within my body that health does not only have to do with the physicality but the whole of the human being. This registered awareness of a healthy life includes feeling and understanding that we are all the same within and the choices we make at every moment reflect in our bodies and affect everything and everyone continuously.
Living with this understanding reveals what kind of relationship one has with oneself, with God, and with humanity as a whole. We live and die and return accordingly.
The great beauty is that nobody is left out nor left behind. We are all given the exact same awareness and we all come to this understanding within our self in our own time and space. Life is either living love or not living love, and we have this choice in very moment.
As for me, I choose to live by the Ancient Wisdom Teachings brought through Universal Medicine by Serge Benhayon.
These teachings are accelerating my understanding that life is a continuum and that I am responsible for my choices and I am not here to save anyone or wait to be saved by anyone.
Every single one of us is given equal understanding with the innate knowing that we are much more than our physical presence.
The physicality fades away to nothingness or dust yet the being-ness of the human continues on its path of return.
This is why I have no fear around dying, it is the same as going to sleep and waking up to another glorious morning. Simple yet true, the way I live today reflects the way I live tomorrow which will be the way I will die and return to live again.
How we live and how we prepare for dying is our responsibility.
Elizabeth D., Nova Scotia, Canada