What Does This Mean To You?

"Death is a stripping away of all that is not you. The secret of life is to “die before you die” — and find that there is no death.”

― Eckhart Tolle

No cheating...
Please tell me how YOU interpret this quote.

For my part...I'm moving to Heaven's waiting room. There's still work to do...and 'I'm suddenly aware of the lateness of things'.

I'm in the process of clearing out a large house, full of a lifetime of stuff I've collected and dragged along with me from place to place...throughout decades of my life.

The stuff I've accumulated and deemed important for some reason or another...feels like Marley's chains to me now.
The vanity of my youth makes me laugh to myself--AT myself, as I dig through box after box of ego things I once thought might be important sometime IN the future...TO the future.

The Glad bags eagerly await them now.

I literally must have once thought, way back, when I was in my stupid days of my stupid youth that, one day, archeologists and history scholars would be thrilled to stumble upon this monumental cache of brilliance and great historical significance...that, somehow, I had managed to preserve for the ages.

It's all crap...it's junk...no more important to faceless folks in the future...than it is to me right now.
My early writings and my thoughts on life, love and everything else, were important ONLY at the time they were put to paper...and really ONLY to me.

Dusty awards, trophies, clippings and accolades from people; some I've never met...some I no longer think about...some whom are, most likely, now just fond memories to their own loved ones...all seem worthless to me now.

They really always were.

It feels good to strip away the past...but I still need to order a dumpster large enough to hold a #-ton of ego.

You've hit the nail smack on the head there.


a reply to: IAMTAT

I just recently moved and am astounded at the accumulation I have procured. Much of it has absolutely no value to anyone including myself. Just occupying space. Currently doing a similar task. Removing this detritus I have built up on 54 years on this rock.

At some point some us who are lucky, I choose use the term blessed begin to realize that less is actually more.
Death in the sense of casting away old things, material, mental even spiritual if you realize the path you are on is not going to work.
Dying to myself means letting go of the things of this world.
Becoming someone new. It’s not easy to do!
We longer chase things, stuff. et etc etc.
This question you ask is mot easy to answer.
With that said.
Jesus said “it is appointed for man to die once“.
Not twice so there is that....





a reply to: IAMTAT

I look around and realize that we would need a tractor trailer to move. We are slowly getting rid of STUFF.
I don’t chase things anymore, especially technology.
I don’t need the latest anything. What I have works fine until it doesn’t work any more.
If it wasn’t for the fact that I don’t like sitting in front of a computer screen I would throw this phone away but I use it to travel the planet see things and go places and visual sense that I’ve never been able to and never will be able to experience. History cultures etc. etc. etc.
I have not turned on the TV in over two weeks and I do not miss it at all.


a reply to: americanbuffalo1

Dead, Dead until judgment.
Ecclesiastes 9:5
For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten.

Psalm 115:
The dead do not praise the Lord, nor do any who go down into silence.

John 5:28-29
Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.

a reply to: IAMTAT

www.biblegateway.com...

Life Is Useless

1 These are the words of the Philosopher, David's son, who was king in Jerusalem.

2 It is useless, useless, said the Philosopher. Life is useless, all useless. 3 You spend your life working, laboring, and what do you have to show for it? 4 Generations come and generations go, but the world stays just the same. 5 The sun still rises, and it still goes down, going wearily back to where it must start all over again. 6 The wind blows south, the wind blows north—round and round and back again. 7 Every river flows into the sea, but the sea is not yet full. The water returns to where the rivers began, and starts all over again. 8 Everything leads to weariness—a weariness too great for words. Our eyes can never see enough to be satisfied; our ears can never hear enough. 9 What has happened before will happen again. What has been done before will be done again. There is nothing new in the whole world. 10 “Look,” they say, “here is something new!” But no, it has all happened before, long before we were born. 11 No one remembers what has happened in the past, and no one in days to come will remember what happens between now and then.

The Philosopher's Experience
12 I, the Philosopher, have been king over Israel in Jerusalem. 13 I determined that I would examine and study all the things that are done in this world.

God has laid a miserable fate upon us. 14 I have seen everything done in this world, and I tell you, it is all useless. It is like chasing the wind. 15 You can't straighten out what is crooked; you can't count things that aren't there.

16 I told myself, “I have become a great man, far wiser than anyone who ruled Jerusalem before me. I know what wisdom and knowledge really are.” 17 I was determined to learn the difference between knowledge and foolishness, wisdom and madness. But I found out that I might as well be chasing the wind. 18 The wiser you are, the more worries you have; the more you know, the more it hurts.

a reply to: IAMTAT

I take it more personally, stripping away the parts of me that are harmful and selfish
We are people in community, here to serve others not just ourselves

Unlike Tolly, something I know I can’t do on my own, most of my inner failures I don’t see, need help to identify them

The only thing I have found meaningful in life is touching someone’s life with love and compassion

a reply to: IAMTAT

Seeing beyond the veil, and the noise of Maya : to catch a glimpse of ... nothing.

The constructs, and labels, and 'things', that we had spent a lifetime building : melt-away.

Leaving nothing to die.

Just this that is. This presence. This awareness, amongst nothingness.

Similar to the 'pure' abstraction of the field of potentialities, from QM, perhaps ?

Did not experience enduring ego-death myself, just put the freeze on it for a while, to look into the abyss.

a reply to: IAMTAT

Simply that death is as much a part of life as life itself. One cannot achieve life without death and death cannot be achieved without life. Therefore one should realize that life and death are the same and never be afraid of life nor death

originally posted by: IAMTAT
"Death is a stripping away of all that is not you. The secret of life is to “die before you die” — and find that there is no death.”

― Eckhart Tolle

No cheating...
Please tell me how YOU interpret this quote.

What the author means by this is the depression Tolle went through in the late 1970s. What broke it was a kind of epiphany to him. He is sharing his thoughts about similarity of depression and death.

Compartmentalized Summarized:
Depression strips away a lot of what makes your personality, so if you went through that, you kind of died before.

a reply to: IAMTAT

"Death is a stripping away of all that is not you. The secret of life is to “die before you die” — and find that there is no death.”

All that is stripped away is of this earth leaving only the Spirit. The death before you die is the rebirth in Jesus Christ and everlasting life.

a reply to: IAMTAT

Nice quote.

To me it means that the world has made its impressions upon you instead of you leaving your impressions on the world.

a reply to: IAMTAT

The death of ego is the most terrifying and enlightening experience i've ever had. I won't tell you how i achieved this state due to forum rules but i can confirm it was life changing. You become all things at once and yet nothing at the same time.

A brief glimpse through the eyes of god makes you acutely aware of your insignificance.

Simply put... Have no attachments. When you die before you die you release attachment to worldly things and or worldly possessions.

I heard many years ago that you never see a U haul behind a hearse. Very true statement.

We are not our bodies. We are not our bank accounts. We are not our career. There is no death. Death is an illusion.

I have sat bedside off many at their time of death. I have learned so much from those close to death and witnessed many amazing experiences.

thats actually an ancient Roman (i think) quote inscribed on an ancient temple.

The quote was originally, "if you die before you die, you don't die when you die."

Brian Muraresku writes about it in his book "Immortality Key" it's a really good book that talks about how ancient cultures actually were using hallucinogens in rituals to show the people that physical reality is just a small part of the wider reality.

The ancients would drink psychedelic "wine" and visit another dimension called Ellusys i believe it was. When christianity ripped the psychedelic rituals from the culture they said that life would become unlivable.

It was a very big part of the their culture back then which was destroyed by the families that are still in power today.

This is why psychedelics are illegal. The powers that be do not want you to know the true nature of reality and what lies beyond death to keep us trapped in a reincarnation cycle i believe.

I learned to astral project years ago and have had more than a thousand out of body experiences. I have also done D-m-T, ketamine, shrooms, etc and have visited these dimensions mentioned by ancient cultures and have had telepathic conversations with beings from beyond our physical reality.

The powers that be do not want the masses to figure this out so they can keep their power over humanity and continue their pointless materialistic way of life.

"If you die before you die you don't die when you die", means that you figure out that life after death is not the bull# the monotheistic religions tell us it is, and that there are infinite possibilities and realities we can be a part of. They don't want you to know that you are a god and that you have been stuck in a reincarnation trap for so long that you completely forgot the true and infinite nature of your own consciousness.

They want you to be obedient materialistic slaves under their "divine right to rule".

When we experience death before death we have the power to overthrow the "el - ites" and take back our power to create a heaven on earth as opposed to the hell they want you trapped in.

Humanity is slowly waking up and the el ites are terrified.
I have no proof, but i think this is what the vaccines are for.(sorry for brining up the vaccine but i think it is important) From some of the people i've talked to who can astral project and have had similar experiences as me, they have said they can't astral project anymore after taking the vaccine and feel like their consciousness itself has been attacked or destroyed.

The powers that be are terrified that the humanity is waking up. We entered the age of Aquarius last december and the satanic rulers of this planet are desperately trying to hold onto their power for the next 2000 years.

We are at a crossroads where we will decide if we are slaves or if we are gods. There is no stopping the awakening in my opinion but they sure as hell can euthanize a lot of people before humanity figures out the truth.

There is so much more at stake here than what the normies realize.

a reply to: IAMTAT

I opened the Thread, I read the quote, and then because of what it means to me, I just closed the Thread.

However I then changed my mind, and decided to let you know that it means absolutely nothing to me.



Everything dies. Everything ends. Nothing lasts forever.

a reply to: IAMTAT

Are "you" what you do?

Or are "you" what you are?

It's how I see it.

The death of ego.

originally posted by: JinMI
a reply to: IAMTAT

Nice quote.

To me it means that the world has made its impressions upon you instead of you leaving your impressions on the world.

This poem by Derek Walcott is one of my favorites.

Love After Love

The time will come
when, with elation
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror
and each will smile at the other's welcome,

and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,

the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.

I used to think I understood it, while I was going through years of situational depression after the death of my wife.
I see it now in an entirely different context relating to the seeing of one's true self with one's own eyes.

a reply to: IAMTAT

Well, the question arises, "Who are you?"

Not labels, not titles, not awards, not diplomas.

Who are you?