Life Beyond Death
The purpose of death
The nature of life after death
How we can prepare for death
How we can assist the dying
Stage Four - The Divine Realm
What happens at death is so unspeakably glorious that our imagination and our feelings do not suffice to form even an approximation of it. C. G. Jung
Each progressive stage of life after death is more abstract and difficult to describe. The Divine realm is a region of pure ideas, representing the most real and eternal plane of cosmic creation. Within it are many Divine worlds and ascending levels. (see Illustrations) In some traditions, this realm is called heaven, paradise or the celestial plane. But these concepts don't do justice to the love, beauty and truth, which are the essential features of this realm. Presiding here are the Great Souls and Perfect Forms, which are the template for the entire order of creation.
Up to this point in the stages of death, all experience has occurred within the framework of a disintegrating individual consciousness. Since individual consciousness is a reflection which has no basis in reality, all experience up to this point is the nature of a dream; an increasingly real dream, but a dream nonetheless. By contrast, the Divine realm exists in it's own right, independent of perception and impossible to comprehend by the mind.
Only a spiritual body of pure Divine essence is refined enough to serve as a platform of conscious experience on this plane. After many cycles of Earth life, if sufficient Divine essence has accumulated (in other words, if the spiritual body has developed enough to sustain a conscious presence) then we awaken and resume our journey on this highest plane of creation.
Everyone has a spiritual body, or soul, in some stage of evolution, and hence some intuitive awareness (conscious or subconscious) of the Divine realm. It exists within us, individually and collectively, as our conscience, inner guidance, inspiration and sense of highest Good. It's this intuitive awareness of the Divine realm that we reflect off when we're being courageous and true in the face of difficult circumstances. In other words, when we're in alignment with Divine will.
At any point in cosmic evolution, we can only experience what we've evolved to, in terms of a body. In most cases, our spiritual body has not developed sufficiently to sustain a conscious presence in the Divine realm. As a result, residual desires pull awareness back to Earth plane for another cycle of birth and death. But it's ok, because our Divine essence is never lost. It's continuously added to our evolving spiritual body. When sufficient Divine essence accumulates, we awaken as a conscious presence in the most real and eternal plane of experience.
In some cases, awakening to the Divine realm takes place even before death of the physical body. One who is thus awakened, while living in the physical body, is called a Jivanmukta (Sanskrit).
