The seeming death of the body is the real birth of the soul.
Hazrat Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Related Material by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Compiled by Wahiduddin Richard Shelquist – wahiduddin.net
There are two deaths, the inner and the external. The first is going into the center, the second going into the vastness.
( from Sangatha II: Tasawwuf [ unpublished ] )
There is a [saying, possibly a Hadith] which says: Mutu qabla an tamutu [موتوا قابل أن تموتوا], which means, ‘Die before death.’ A poet says, ‘Only those attain to the peace of the Lord who lose self.’ God said to Moses, ‘No human shall see me and live.’ To see God we must be non-existent. What does all this mean? It means that when we see our being with open eyes, we see that there are two aspects to our being: the false and the true. The false life is that of the body and mind, which only exists as long as the life is within. In the absence of that life the body cannot go on. We mistake the true life for the false, and the false for the true.
Dying is this: when there is a fruit or something sweet and good to taste, the child comes to its mother and says, ‘Will you give it to me?’ Although it would have given pleasure to the mother to eat it, she gives it to the child. The eating of it by the child is enjoyed by the mother. That is death. She enjoys her life in the joy of another. Those who rejoice in the joy of another, though at their own expense, have taken the first step towards true life. … If we enjoy a beautiful thing so much that we would like to have it, and then give that joy to another, enjoying it through their experience, we are dead. That is our death. Yet, we live more than they. Our life is much vaster, deeper, greater. [ And from the Buddhist perspective, this state is result of the cultivation of the fourth “Immeasurable” — mudita, empathetic or vicarious joy (feeling joy and fulfillment from the joy, success, good fortune, fulfillment of another). The Four Immeasurables are equanimity (upekkha), love (metta), compassion (karuna), and empathetic joy (mudita). — Muiz ]
Seemingly it is a renunciation, an annihilation, but in truth it is a mastery. The real meaning of crucifixion is to crucify this false self, and so resurrect the true self. As long as the false self is not crucified, the true self is still not realized. By Sufis it is called Fanā’ [ فناء ], annihilation [ passing away or effacement of the nafs in the Being of Allah, which is the experience of dying before death — Muiz ]. All the attempts made by true sages and seekers after real truth are for the one aim of attaining to everlasting life.
We love our body and identify ourselves with it to such an extent that we are very unhappy to think that this body, which is so dear to us, will some day be in the grave. No one likes to think that it will die and be destroyed. But the soul is our true self. It existed before our birth and will exist after our death.
The soul is our real being, through which we realize and are conscious of our life. When the body, owing to loss of strength and magnetism, has lost its grip upon the mind, the seeming death comes; that which everybody calls death. Then the soul’s experience of life remains only with one vehicle, that is the mind, which contains within itself a world of its own, photographed from one’s experience on earth on the physical plane. This is heaven if it is full of joy, and it is hell if it is filled with sorrow. … But the soul is alive. It is the spirit of the eternal Being, and it has no death. It is everlasting.
Commentary by Murshid S.A.M. (Sufi Ahmed Murad)
Samuel L. Lewis
By death of the body is meant dissolution, of course. For when this physical body is disintegrated, the soul is no longer a captive to time and space and its life becomes much more real.
In another sense, body means much more than just the physical body; any body — earth-body, mind-body, or even heart-body — seems to exact something from soul so that it does not fully realize its complete union and unity with God.
Again, death of body may mean death of the influence of body. This is a most wonderful process. When one has completely realized God while in the physical body, when one has attained to liberation, the form of the body remains — one still has a chemical body but there is a marvelous change in it. The old physical atoms fall away and are displaced by finer particles. These are more attenuated and are filled with the life-force which flows forth from the heart — not with the blood so much as around the blood like magnetism flows around an electric wire. This living magnetism produces a living light and sometimes this light can manifest. Thus Jesus Christ has said, “Let your light shine before men”. This light was also seen in Moses when the Glory of God shone upon him, and it is called Kevod by the Hebrews. This is the living breath and life of God. It is also manifested in Mohammed whose inner light was so great that sometimes he cast no shadow. It was this attainment which gave him the right to be called Mohammed. By Sufis the light of the whole manifest universe is called Nuri Mohammed.
This spiritual physical body is called Nirmanakaya, or body of transformation, by the Buddhists, and it can be dissolved instantly at what is called death. Such dissolution certainly was true in the historical cases of Moses, Elijah, Jesus Christ, Kabir, and many others. There is not always instantaneous dissolution because if the body is kept whole, or parts remain, they help to sanctify the earth. So Mohammed was placed in a tomb and the remains of Buddha placed in stupas.