2. The Reversal

Plato is one of the most famous of the many famous ancient Greek philosophers. He lived around 427 to 347 BC, was a student of Socrates and one of his students was Aristotle. Plato's teachings have influenced and shaped the faith and worldview of millions of people at all times and all over the world. One of his teachings says that man has an immortal soul that lives on after his death separately from the body. His allegory of the cave is probably the best-known parable of ancient philosophy. What's that about?

In this parable, the people live as prisoners in a cave. They are so tied up that they can only see the shadows cast by a light on the wall, but not the source of the light. People think the dimly shadows on the wall are reality. Even their own shadows. When they stand up, cast off their shackles, turn around, they recognize the light, the true origin of their images and can set out on the path to the exit, on the path to freedom.

On the long path of evolution, man is the transition from an unconscious to conscious evolution. Man is the only being in the world able to cast off his shackles, to turn away from the shadow play on the wall, to turn back and walk the path to the true source of light, to the exit, to freedom. Some have turned around and some have described how to get there. But only a few have followed them. Even today the masses sit in this cave and follow the fascinating shadow play on the wall. Why do we not use our potential? What's stopping us from turning back?


Admittedly, the shadow play became more and more extensive, more and more fascinating. The possibilities in this game seem endless. We are attached to this illusion, we cannot detach ourselves from it. In Buddhism, this is called adherence. This shadow world is our outside world and we are attached to it, to its comforts, our successes, our possessions. We have learned to ignore all the unpleasantness of this world, its unreality, its suffering, its transitoriness. We constantly see how other shadows are affected, but we believe and hope that our shadows will be spared. We enjoy the shadow play and completely ignore the fact that the curtain will fall soon.

When we turn around, when we turn back, we see the source of light. We see things as they really are. There are no more illusions. We can't fool ourselves anymore. Death shines in the light and we recognize the transience of shadows, even our own shadow. Since we still identify us with our shadow, we fear death. We fear death because it is something we do not understand, at least not from our own experience. We do not understand it because we have repressed it and when it suddenly appears before us, we panic. But death is no more the end than birth is the beginning. No one can teach us more about life than death and if we do not understand death, we will not understand our life. But only if we understand our life, we can live it self-determined.

If we let go of our outside world and take the path to our inside, we cannot block out death. But we can see what it really is. Death is not passing away; it is an awakening. With this awakening, we pass through the gate to a higher level of consciousness – the conscious death. For thousands of years, mystics from all cultures and religions have experienced this level of consciousness and some have tried to describe it. We can simply believe them, but we can also experience this state ourselves and pass through the gate to a higher level of consciousness.