On Death and Memory – Birth and Death

When a person is born, it can be said that they have no memory whatsoever of anything before birth. Can this not be said then of death? Is there really that much of a difference between birth and death?

If both are said to be oblivious states in which conscious does not yet, or ceases to exist, then they are one in the same. There is no difference, before or after, for something that doesn’t exist. Experience of consciousness happens during the living phase, which is the only phase. A state of non-existence is not a phase. This is an interesting thought, because God is said to be beyond time and space, essentially a phaseless existence. There is no change because there is no change possible, as a moment to change does not exist.

If both are said to be conscious states of which we only have no memory, then it calls into question so many different things. What were we before we were born? What created us if we were nothing before we were born? The generation of a soul may be just an accident of physical birth. If it is, then is Man the creator of Man?

What decided what body we assumed before we were born if were not created at birth? From here we go on into various metaphysical and theological questions about God and the nature of reality. However, none of these questions can be satisfactorily answered without some degree of hesitation, exception or faith.

I do not think that there is any difference between Birth and Death, they are merely labels for transitional states of which we move from one existence to another. Even if we have no memory left, if we move on to become angel or demon, animal or human again, there must be some condition that has come from our past lives, generate by our actions and conscious thought, that moves on into another body or mode of existence. What is to say that a rock which has had my ashes placed upon it does not contain some of my essence. Who knows in what world that rock may become part of another living being, by passive influence or by direct absorbtion as a mineral.

Birth, Life, Death, Reincarnation, Eternal Salvation, Transcendental States, are all speculation and will remain so until we experience the end for ourselves…if there remains an experience to be had.