The Seal of Death as a Factor in Evolution
As is well known, one of the conditions necessary for Prince Siddhartha’s transformation into the Buddha was his encounter with death. What is it about this confrontation that permanently alters the course of life?
For any person, childhood ends when someone truly close dies — that is, when death turns from something distant and indeterminate into something near and dangerous.
The situation is similar with places where mass deaths occurred — battlefields, cities ravaged by epidemics, and so on. Such places never shed the memory of the deaths that occurred there; those places remain marked by death, and remembrance inevitably leaves its mark on people’s minds. Cemeteries usually do not bear this imprint — death from old age or a prolonged illness leads to a quiet fading away, not accompanied by any substantial alteration of the field of power.
It is well known that the awareness of one’s mortality (not merely the theoretical notion ” one day I too will die,” but a clear awareness of this fact) fills life with new meaning, with new intensity. However, death’s impact on the mind is not exhausted by this psychological moment. The energy of death acts on a person beyond their mind as well, directly and immediately, transforming their nature.
This energy is not only, perhaps not even primarily, the energy of decay, pain, and suffering; it is something greater: the energy of a one-way transition, of leaving embodiment, the energy of crossing the Threshold. No wonder that among the Slavs the god of life and at the same time the god of death is Veles, keeper of the Threshold. This energy is the energy of dissolution, disidentification, and depersonalization.
What happens to a person when interacting with such energy? The principal effect is precisely the reduction in self-identification, a rupture of the boundaries between “I” and the “not-I”. It is no coincidence that Indian sages who proclaimed that ” you are that” come into such close contact with death.
For the Western Magus, a very high degree of self-identification is traditionally common. Surprisingly, it can also be attained through interaction with the energy of death. However, in this case, it is one’s own death. We have already said that the dissolution of the seeker’s self is a necessary stage in transformation into a Magus, and it is precisely the attainment of control over the energy of dissolution and its balancing with the energy of coagulation that is a necessary condition for achieving wholeness.
‘It’s no coincidence that the Indians proclaimed that you are that.’ Do you mean – you are what you are?
No, I mean ‘tat tvam asi’, in the sense – ‘Atman is Brahman’.
I recently read an article that claims that the innate asymmetry of the face, which is most pronounced in youth, smooths out with age. In short, the more symmetrical the face, the closer to death one is. It turns out that the face shows the ‘potential difference’ due to which we live. If a young person suddenly has complete symmetry, it foretells an unexpected death. There is even a case described. This was in one of the latest issues of AiF. The doctors disagree. What do you think? It seems to be the seal of death. Although I somehow felt that a person ‘broke’ and would die, about five months in advance… At that time, I did not know what it was.
I’ve heard of such a theory. But I don’t think that facial asymmetry relates to ‘vitality.’ However – who knows…