You Are Not Born and You Never Die

How is it that we are never born and we never really die? A woman whose father recently passed away is trying to understand the difference between life and death. She wonders when the transition between life and death happens and how. That is, what is the difference between the localised form of consciousness and universal consciousness? She has also had an out-of-body experience and wonders what is the difference between dying and sleeping or having an out-of-body experience? At what point does localised consciousness actually begin and end?

Rupert examines life and death through the lens of the universal consciousness before it assumes the activities of a finite mind. When consciousness commences with thinking and perceiving, it is as if the thinker puts on a virtual reality (VR) headset and localises itself as a separate subject of experience from whose perspective it views its own activity as the world.

There is no inherent stuff called matter — matter is simply what the activity of consciousness looks like from our localised perspectives. The moment at which the body is “conceived” is the moment that consciousness puts on the VR headset of thinking and perceiving — it becomes a localised self. And everything that is not localised, is viewed as the world around us.

Dreaming is similar. The dreamer localises as an apparent separate subject of experience, and all the other aspects within the dream appear as the world. When was your dream character’s body born? It was never born. It simply appeared when the dream began. When did the dream character die? It never died. The dream mind simply stopped localising itself as the dream character.

So it is in the reality of our being—we never come into existence, and never go out of existence. We are eternally present. The localisation of life is temporary and merely appears and disappears.

This clip was taken from one of Rupert's in-person retreats at The Vedanta from 17th to 24th September, 2022.

Timestamps
02:43 What Is Universal Consciousness?
03:37 Infinite Consciousness and the Finite Human Mind
05:09 When Were We Born?
06:24 We Never Really Die
06:39 Does Existence Begin or End?