The Sanskrit term „Shanti Nilaya“ translates as The Home of Peace – Sanskrit is the primary ceremonial language in Hindu religion, although it is also spoken as official language in some parts of India. Sanskrit is often referred to as „the cultured, refined language“ but similarly as Latin, it does not focus on description of (material) objects but each word conveys its spiritual meaning. In that respect, (from the usual western minded translation) the meaning of Shanti Nilaya would be more closely linked to „death“ although the true meaning in Sanskrit goes deeper. Here, the meaning is not simply „death“ but also „life after death“ – without any negative connotation. My good readers may also remember me mentioning the term Cosmic Consciousness.
As always, I’d like to offer my perspective and my understanding. Or in other words, the meaning of death doesn’t always have negative connotation nor does it mean the end of everything (as western mind often concludes). What it means is the return home (the final home of peace).
The Euro-American civilization has re-invented the concept of the „light at the end of a tunnel“ in its modern consumerism way. The light at the end of the tunnel, as in a passing through (Tibetan) bardo, (otherwise referred to passing into another dimension) was re-discovered by Dr. Moody. Many years ago, the death used to be part of everyday’s life. People were born and died at home (now we transferred these events to hospitals) and they believed in heaven and life after death – these are the words of Elizabeth Kübler-Ross in her book „On Death and Dying“. She also says: the fact that many people don’t know that life really continues after the death of our physical bodies is a matter of about last 100 years. All of us who were born from the same source and the same God, we keep that part of divine source within ourselves. More and more people realize that our physical bodies are more like temples, homes or a shells that were given to us for a certain number of years (for the period of our lives) until we all have to go through the inevitable transformation – this we call death. At that moment of death of the physical body, we free ourselves from our shells and we’re free as butterflies…
She has also learnt (and later taught the same) that there is little point in fighting the death by clinging on to life refusing to submit yourself to the inevitable (this has also a parallel to beginning of life – birth). In other words, she has experienced (cosmic consciousness) the absolute connection of everything with everything, and truly realized that she herself was a part of Everything. Once people realize that, it helps them accept the idea or thought of death and dying. Today, we are born and we die removed from our natural home environment – we „transferred“ these natural events to hospitals removing them from our daily lives. These utmost important and fundamental events of human life are also very spiritual events and removing them from our daily lives leaves us with our daily grind, with little opportunity to realize ourselves spiritually and appreciate that at the end of our physical experience we will simply return back home – whether we call it Brahman, God, Cosmic Consciousness or Quantum Leaps.
Is it so hard to imagine that there could be a link between the entoptic phenomena (visions), the experiences of founders of many religions in the world, the shamanic rituals, orgasmic births, psychedelic music, the principle of octave, the quantum leaps and so on and so forth? It took several days for Elizabeth Kübler-Ross to return back to normal (physical) life with all its little goings, and further several months until she was able to put in words what she had experienced. Her experience however, is profoundly different to the other mystics, religious or ecstatic events of the saints, shamen, gurus or other elightened people – she has passed through the light at the end of the tunnel (that awaits those who met a good (honourable) death. (See also “the first scientific framework for the near-death experiences reported by many cardiac arrest survivors.” Jimo Borjigin from Michigan University, said: „Many people thought that the brain after clinical death is inactive (i.e. hypoactive), with lower measurable activity than the activity measured at waking up stage, however we have now proved that this is not true at all. People who recovered after such state of clinical death often describe very similar experiences of intense light or out of body experiences, which could potentially be explained by the electrical activity in the brain.“)
Hameroff’s (and Penrose’s) model of consciousnes and matter seems to indicate, that the „something mysterious“, which stands at the beginning of creation of any matter in universe as well as the mind (as something abstract) is likely a result of some quantum time-and-space geometry. Now imagine that – modern science being linked to the age old religion – in Vedic tradition, it is called Brahman, while you may have seen it described elsewhere as the Spirit , God or Cosmos. Our reality as we live it is fundamentally spiritual (see my earlier article Quantum Leaps). Hameroff also states that the ancient Buddhist texts also use references to the so called Pure Consciousness and that the universe is not only made out of particles and matter, but it is made of processes – quantum events. Analogy: the human brain doesn’t just consist of trillions of individual (and on their own non-active) neurons. On the contrary, each neuron is a very complex object on its own, with its own intelligence, capable of thousands of trillions of processes every second.
In our material reality, we could say, that when at meditating you reach that level of „nothingness“, a complete calm and quiet, the nothing – it’s not nothing. Hameroff says: „I believe this is the time-and-space geometry, and at that moment you are closer than ever to that complete database of all and everything, the englightened wisdom which is indivisible part of the fundamental field – and all of a sudden you are aware of it. The various spiritual methods, as for example meditation is, provides a way how to submerge yourself into the world of wisdom (to realize the connection of everything around and within us), the absoloute basis of all things material or abstract. If this hypothesis of quantum consciousness is confirmed, it will validate that a spiritual side of life (or the intangible) really exists and it will undermine the all materialistic view of today’s world and provide people with the greatest hope.
Yes, this is what I’ve been writing about for all those years, this is my perspective on things – and I am not alone. I’m merely forwarding and interpreting the conclusions of many investigators of spirituality (or music, or quantum physics). I’m trying to promote the idea that prevention, generally, is much better than the follow up treatment. An author, Richard Merrick knows all too well, that the real change will happen only when the intelligence (scientists, teachers, etc) will stop looking for differences and instead start noticing how everything actually works together and how much we are connected to the nature and universe. And I will add: and also, when women start giving birth to the future buddhas… Their children will then understand that death is just a part of our lives, and stop being afraid of it as if it is the end of all – we know it isn’t. It’s just a different way of being. In that respect, I much like Czech autor Jaroslav Dusek’s opinion: „How come the Christ is always depicted hanging on the cross? The point of his story is his resurrection. How come his story is always being depicted before it reaches its true meaning?“
I’m trying to say that it is our attitude (whether positive or negative), as well as our culture and traditions how we see death and dying: almost always we dictate to ourselves that it is something to be feared, something we have to suffer through and as such it mean the end of all our hopes. Similarly, mostly negative (scaremongering) details about childbirth are often passed between women way before they can have their own experience, so they are simply expecting something horrible, always extremely painful and something to be feared – generally. It is like self-fulfilling prophecy – if you expect it, it will happen for your exactly the way you fear it. In most cases the cultural indoctrination takes over any hopes for improvements – and I stress again, that it is our attitude that create the way for the future. If women expect it to be horrible, they may resolve that it is inevitable pain rather than pleasure it could be (please google again orgasmic births if you need more evidence)…. And it is the same for death and dying, if we accept it and prepare for it, it can be shanti nilaya – the final home of peace.
You can find increasing number of books, information and evidence on this theme, and you find that things are much different than our cultural indoctrination (which is ruled by our own fears) is lying to us… I spent many years translating and citing statements and evidence from such capacities as Grof, Dass, Huxley, Wilson, Wilber, Pribram, Bohm, McKenna, Shinoda-Bolen, Watts, Snyder, Halifax, Zukav, Eisler, Gimbutas, but also Sheldrake, Narby, Hameroff, Merrick and the above mentioned Kübler-Ross. But for some people it seemed hard to believe. And now the evidence is growing, more of you understand that they were right… confirming what all „investigators“ and students of spirituality have been discovering on themselves… It’s finally come to the time when we start to understand we need to awaken (some 2600 years after Buddha – which means Awaken) and the humanity should achieve the englightenment for their own good. Or as I like to say, what if things are getting so bad that it’s finally the time for them to get better? It’s like finally hitting rock bottom and bouncing off… we will finally stop focusing on the differences between us and instead see how much we have in common and the wonderful connection we have with everything (whether it is called Brahman, God, Heaven, Shanti Nilaya). Then, the good death would be (just like the birth) a matter of finding the right gate to pass through…
