Life in the World to Come
My daughter brought two cats home. She saved them from a life of misery, abuse and abandonment. When the cats arrived, they were so frightened, that spend weeks under the bed, hiding in fear.
Our cats are lovely. They are fully recovered, and now they are the cats they were meant to be. They go out in the morning, come several times during the day to eat, and come back very late at night. We open and close doors for them frequently.
The cats, being proud of their nature, have been bringing to our door dead mice and birds. I open the door to pick up the newspaper and I encounter a display of their bounty.
I asked myself, How is that I never see dead mice or birds; I do not see anybody dead for that matter. Is it because we have isolated ourselves from nature that all we see is alive and seldom death although dead is right there, around us, invisible but present.
I understood that to be alive, meant to face death, as nature is always in movement and recycling itself.
My readings have brought me to demystify death from something dreadful to something to look forward.
Rabbi Yaakov says, 'This World is like an anteroom (of a Palace) with respect to the World-to-Come. Prepare yourself in the anteroom so that you will gain entry to the Palace.' (Pirkei Avot, 4:21)
He used to say, 'One moment of repentance and good deeds in This World is better than all of Life in the World-to-Come. But (by contrast), one moment of spiritual delight in the World-to-Come is better than all of Life in This World.' " (Pirkei Avot, 4:22)
His teachings dated from more than 2000 years ago sound very real today. In this world: we are, we have, we do. In the next world we are in the state of ‘being’ having taking away from us our only liberty in this one: the possibility to choose. In the other world, we are in a state of spiritual delight for eternity or until we come back again for more work to be done.
There are now thousands of accounts of people in the state ‘near death experience’. Dannion Brinley
in his book ‘Saved by the Light: True Story of a Man that Died Twice and the Profound Revelations He Received’, recounts several times how people go through a tunnel, then they encounter the light, and they see the film of their lives. There is peace, there is light, there is love and a wonderful feeling. Most of them are more that willing to continue their trip, but the light sends those back to pain and misery till there recover from their illness. All of them explained how this experience has completely changed their lives.
Mr. Dannion Brinkley wrote that he almost died from being struck by lightening. He lived like many Americans, working, playing watching TV., looking for entertainment and shopping. When he almost died, the light showed him the film of his life. He was ashamed from watching the negative things he did. Then he felt delighted from the experience and in a state of awe. Recovering slowly from this very painful event, he changed his life completely. He became religious, volunteered in old age homes 20 hours a week where he will do anything, from changing diapers, to holding old ladies in his arms to cheer them up.
Years latter, he got a heart attack. He denied himself any kind of treatment because he thought that now he was going to make it back where all this bliss is to be found. Only Dr. Raymond Moody, his friend asked him to stay for him, and he agreed. He experienced again the ‘Near dead experience’ and guess what, he saw his film again from the beginning. Again he was ashamed, but latter he was happy to see that the work at the old age home, having invited homeless people for dinner, and other good deeds were in the film and it felt really good. He was thankful for having had this opportunity, and then he was sent back to recall all what happened to him. He wrote a book about his own experience and the experience of other people that feel comfortable to speak to each other about it.
The people having had a NDE become more human, more caring, less materialistic, more spiritual and religious.
Live is a great opportunity to repair, to do good deeds, to enjoy what is given to us and to be thankful for the experience of being alive in this world.
We, human beings are part of nature, part of the spiritual world. We balance our human need and the spiritual ones, not knowing from the beginning which way to go.
Our minds are confused; it is hard to know what to believe, or what to do.
We have been granted wisdom from the sages many generations ago. Rabbi Yaakov said: A moment of repentance and good deeds in this world is better that all the life in the world to come and a moment of spiritual delight in the world to come is better that all this life.
I would like to encourage all of us to take heed in what has been experienced by others, to put more attention in helping others, being there for them, seeing them as spiritual entities, so when we see our film, we would be able to feel a deep satisfaction of having had a life well lived.
Estela Sasson
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