Life Beyond Death
An ongoing inquiry into purpose of death,
the nature of life after death,
how we can prepare for death,
and how we can assist the dying.
Stage Four - The Divine Realm
A good man has nothing to fear, either in life or in death. And his fate is not a matter of indifference to the gods.
Each stage of life beyond death becomes increasingly difficult to describe. The Divine realm is inconceivable. It is the most real and eternal experience in creation, where we reside in constant and direct communion with Infinite Consciousness, or God. In some traditions, this plane of experience is called heaven or the celestial plane. But these concepts don't do justice to the inconceivable love, beauty and truth, which are the essential qualities of this realm. This is the heaven of Plato's perfect forms, the realm of the angels, archangels and the ascended masters who once walked on Earth.
To fully experience the Divine realm, we must have a spiritual body as a suitable platform for a conscious experience. Only a body made of pure Divine essence is refined enough to serve this function. After many cycles of Earth life, if there's enough Divine essence to sustain a conscious presence, then we awaken in the Divine realm for eternity. (Eternity in this sense does not mean forever, but until the dissolution of creation. This may sound like a long time, but it's just the blink of an eye compared to forever.)
To a large extent, everything in the Divine realm depends on the physical plane of experience. Only through living, loving and dying on Earth (or some other planet) does Infinite Consciousness create the Divine essence necessary to sustain the Divine realm. This is the importance of human birth and death in the scheme of cosmic evolution.
As with all the planes of experience, the Divine realm is not a place, or location. It's a state of consciousness within us. Everyone has a spiritual body in some stage of evolution, and hence, some remote awareness (conscious or unconscious) of the Divine realm. It exists within us, individually and collectively, as our conscience or Divine guidance, that we reflect off when we're being courageous, selfless and true in the face of difficult challenges. In other words, when we're in alignment with Divine will.
At any point in cosmic evolution, we can only experience what we have evolved to, in terms of a body. In most cases, the spiritual body has not evolved sufficiently to sustain a conscious presence in the Divine realm. But it's ok, because our Divine essence is never lost. It's simply added to our evolving spiritual body. And, when sufficient Divine essence accumulates, we awaken as a conscious presence in the highest and most real plane of creation. Many who are now on a spiritual path, or who are drawn to the love of Truth and the Divine, will reach a conscious presence in the Divine realm after this human life is completed.
Beyond the Divine realm is the Absolute level of life, Infinite Consciousness, or God, which is beyond all existence and experience. Eventually, when all desire for experience is fulfilled, the Eternal Soul drops the spiritual body and merges with God, like a drop of water slipping into the ocean.
