stage six
Find Inner Peace and Freedom
accepting death
Accepting death means finding your place within a sense of immortality. Here we have some options.
We can take a scientific atheist approach – we are energy that takes our current form then takes another form after this form ceases. Yes our physical form dies but our atoms and the quarks and electrons that make them up can never be destroyed.
But, still, is that it?
Or, we can cycle back to theistic religion, not to try to find a refuge after all in prescribed religion, but to decide that there is a god that we can’t know, but which means we at some level live forever as its creations. What this looks like is unknowable so there are no prayers to say as such, just a belief to hold that you will be looked after by this ultimate god.
But, of course there’s always the call of who made the ultimate god?
Then there is the view taken by Eastern Philosophies such as Buddhist, Taoism, and Hindu Vendanta, and espoused so eloquently by Thich Nhat Hanh, where we see ourselves as living eternally in the sense of never really having been born in the first place. There is no birth, and so no death, we are one with a greater, unknowable, reality.
Infinite existence
Infinite Existence is rooted in this Eastern Philosophical view of no birth, no death but seen through the lens of modern cosmological thought. It is the idea that there are infinite universes playing out infinitely & each of us is part of this and connected fundamentally at every level. The way to accept death and find inner peace and freedom is to feel part of an infinite existence. You can read more in the article Infinite Existence but the basics are below:
Infinite existence has three key features:
1) A truly infinite, inexhaustible set of universes.
2) Within any of these universes, where the conditions arise for self-conscious beings to evolve, then beings like you and me exist with our individual personalities and desires and fears. Our personalities are our World Identities.
3) Beyond/behind but also intrinsically a part of both our World Identity and all parts of these Infinite Universes is a Universal Consciousness we all share.
Infinite Universes
That there could be infinite universes, our own being just one of many, is an idea that can be traced back at least as far as the time of ancient Greece, but has become more popularly known through science fiction books and movies. It is also now more widely accepted in the scientific community, and goes by various names such as parallel universes, the multiverse and many worlds theory – and there are lots of variations within each theory.
The article Infinite Existence references some of the scientific theories that investigate multiple universes, though my aim is not to go into the details of why this may be true scientifically, or adopt it as a truth, simply to show that it is logical and helps with understanding our place in a greater reality. All this is vital for you to find inner peace and freedom. Also, the concept of Infinity itself is discussed in the article – Why Understanding Infinity Is Important To You.
If there are an infinite amount of universes – each universe playing out every possible variation, right down to the directions and speeds each electron takes around each atomic nucleus – then every possible version of you and your life, and everyone’s lives, each World Identity, does, and has, and will exist.
This means that as Universal Consciousness you will experience, and are experiencing, every version of yourself and your life, and the lives of every other being, even if you are only aware of this one life now.
Your World identity
If you were to describe yourself to a stranger you would generally be describing your World Identity. I was born here, I like this, I don’t like that, I believe in this and I want this and that.
The World Identity in many spiritual traditions is something to be controlled, maybe feared or seen as a distraction and a problem. It is the ego and the id and the super ego. It is the part of ourselves that desires and fears.
When you meditate your World Identity is the aspect of yourself that often chatters away with distracting enticing ideas and annoyances and random opinions you never asked it for.
In infinite Existence your World Identity is not wrong or bad or something to get rid of it is simply part of who you are here and now at this point. Becoming aware of this side of yourself is an essential stepping stone to find inner peace and freedom. Without this step you are left following your desires and running from your fears without thought.
universal consciousness
In all spiritual mystical traditions there is a sense of self that could be described as being a sense of connection to all people and all things. It is also a sense of self that you can feel within yourself. IFS taps into this felt sense of self when working through your own personal problems and traumas. This is our Universal Consciousness.
Presence (as Tolle describes it in The Power Of Now and as IFS teaches us to feel) is to me the felt sense of Universal Consciousness. This is different to mindfulness as it is usually defined, as being aware of your World Identity, essentially being aware of your thoughts.
When you feel a sense of yourself as existing over time as the I you have been since birth, and through childhood, this is the feeling of Universal Consciousness. This Universal Consciousness I believe is the same for everyone because it has no personality as such. You find inner peace and freedom when you connect with Universal Consciousness.
Implications of Infinite Existence
A Universal Consciousness that is in everything and in every self-conscious being means that it was, does and will be witness to every possible self-conscious being’s life and every version of each of those lives.
As Universal Consciousness you will live forever, and already are, and you will be every person there ever was or will be and every version of those people. You will be, and are, every molecule already. You are human, animal, alien and grain of sand and electron, neutrino and anything yet to be discovered and named.
This is Infinite Existence and immortality, without the need for the World Identity that you are right now reading this to live any longer on this earth than you will.
When you find inner peace and freedom you stop chasing the phantoms of achievement, physical immortality or even soul immortality which is often an ethereal version of your World Identity.
Death is a meaningless concept
With the idea of never-ending World Identities in a perpetual series of universes, all connected together by Universal Consciousness, the idea of death loses all meaning.
The you that reads this now is both your World Identity, and Universal Consciousness. Though your World Identity will stop some day, Universal Consciousness never stops. It is unchanging and as indestructible as energy.
And really it makes no sense to think even of your World Identity as stopping/dying. Another you will be born, an infinite number of you’s in fact, and also an infinite number of every person and every form.
Grasping this means to find inner peace and freedom. You don’t need to attach to the desires, and fears, and the achievements, and defences, such attachment drives you to build. They are as meaningless as death.
Instead, you can live in this world and enjoy it, enjoy feeling and witnessing the fullness of Universal Consciousness and this World Identity you are now.
Practicing The Roadmap - stage six
Continue to Get Into A Growth Mindset view with what you are learning.
Continue to take time to yourself and spend time alone in nature as a way to help connect with the stillness inside yourself. Continue with all of the Meditation practices in Meditation – 3 Ways.
As you now become fully comfortable with the concepts of Universal Consciousness and World Identity then Infinite Existence. is an easy concept to enjoy to find inner peace and freedom.
Key Guides for this stage – Mindset, No Bad Parts, Fear & The Power Of Now
are you ready for stage seven?
When you find inner peace and freedom by fully accepting that you are not simply your World Identity, the here and now you, but connected to all of life through your Universal Consciousness then all there is left is to live in and enjoy this Infinite Existence. You are already in Stage Seven.