All of this makes complete sense to me. And it’s what has been imparted by Buddhism, Hinduism, and many other great religions and teachers. I don’t find anything dogmatic about it, an objective examination of these concepts renders them believable – provided that souls do exist.
But here is where I get incredibly confused: What then? What happens once we are only consciousness, when we’ve managed to release ourselves from the temptations of the world and forever-after exist on a celestial plane where our minds stay blank and steady? Are we supposed to remain catatonic for eternity? Are we never again to anticipate any activity or challenge?
Meditation is traditionally thought to be a worthy state to pursue, a tool to bring us closer to nirvana. The blanker the mind, the better.
But how many of us can imagine sitting in a meditative-like state for billions of years, doing or feeling nothing? Sure, meditation is great for a small stretch of time, one that might even last days or weeks if you’re a monk. There is no doubt that it IS a powerful tool in calming us down, making us more focused, and helping us to breathe. But at some point we can’t keep suppressing our curious and active intellects, or our free will, neither of which is passive or inanimate. We are not rocks. We are not mountains. We are sentient beings that feel and think. How is it natural to strive for a state of being that resembles meditation, or a lobotomy, as our ultimate destination? Even if there is a blissful feeling of love when we get there, it’s just one constant emotion with no change or challenge. Like an infinite zombie orgy. What would be the point of the Universe giving us the ability to make decisions with our thinking minds, but then expecting us to not use it in order to be truly happy? It seems contradictory to our nature to strive to reach a “nirvana” where the goal is to suppress our innate, energetic qualities.
Note that I’m not questioning our time here on Earth, in our current avatars. The guidance we get from the Swamijis in my Hindu community is to detach and meditate, but to also serve mankind through acts of volunteering and charity. It’s a concept called seva, or service. I wholeheartedly believe in it, and welcome it. It’s a great solution to the aforementioned conundrum – detach from the rat race and roller coaster of life to obtain more internal happiness, but keep yourself busy by teaching and serving others. It’s not something I would want to do for eternity – be reborn again and again as a human or physical body but strive to remain detached from it while I serve others. The temptation of sensory pleasures and self-gratification when stuck in a single body might be too hard to resist each time. It’s also very lonely. But I think it’s a great interim solution while waiting to pass on and obtain eternal bliss in the afterlife. That and bingeing YouTube videos.
My main problem is that I find it difficult to reconcile what supposedly happens once I am no longer being born into a physical body. I don’t understand what one is supposed to do with an intelligent consciousness and active free will then? If there is no one to serve and nothing to occupy us, how will we exist without becoming restless? Does the bright light and love that people experience during near-death involve the extinguishment of any separate thoughts or abilities?
