Two Deaths, One State

Neville's Inner Vision

On the inner plane, these two deaths are two states of consciousness, not two bodies. The man who dies in his full strength embodies a solid, comfortable outer world—the mind’s image of security, ease, and nourishment—but that appearance ends as all appearances do. The other dies in bitterness of soul, clinging to grievance, fear, or sour expectation. Job’s verse is not a report about mechanics; it reveals the inner mechanics: death is not the destruction of life but the closing of a habit of consciousness. There is only the I AM, the enduring awareness that remains while forms appear and disappear. The dust and worms symbolize that the outward persona dissolves, yet the I AM persists; the two deaths are thus equivalent because both are states of mind. Decide now that you are the I AM that does not die with a mood or circumstance. If you want your life to transcend the bitter sense of death, persist in a revision: I am always at ease, the awareness that clothes and discards every scene.