© 2018 Fernand de Vinck
© 2018 Association Francophone des Lecteurs du Livre d'Urantia
Here is a reflection from Fernand de VINCK on death that he wrote down on paper shortly before he left us for the world of houses.
Fernand was Belgian, from a noble family, he had a brilliant military career. In retirement, he lived in Breine l’Alleud, near Brussels.
Fernand was a long-time friend of Jean Royer, Jacques Dupont and myself. He participated in the first correction of Jacques Weiss’ translation, from 1978 to 1994.
Fernand contributed letters to LA LETTRE, the quarterly periodical of the CERDH.
In this photo, taken at Jacques’s in Recloses in 1987, we are discussing the revision.
Imagine yourself at a friend’s house, discussing the future. If you say: “so, we have to talk about death”, you have a good chance of finding yourself alone like a scarecrow in a field. During the last century of our history, we have sung the praises of reason at times and out of time, while in the face of death, our attitude has become perfectly unreasonable. We insure ourselves against all risks, we worry in advance about events that could occur and the only inevitable thing, we refuse to think about: our death.
We do not know what death is because we do not dare to look it in the face, and we do not dare to look at it because we fear the unknown. We have allowed ourselves to be trapped in this vicious circle through intellectual negligence or through submission to old images from our childhood taught by some good soul incapable of going beyond these primary representations. We can only understand our life and give it value if we understand and value our death. So, what is DEATH?
Arnaud Desjardin says: ask in the East what is the opposite of death, you will be told “birth”. Ask the question in the West, you have a good chance of hearing the answer “Life”. This illustrates a difference that conditions all our behavior.
When we look death in the face, what do we see? First, objectively: we are carried by a human body and now know, since the latest discoveries in physics, how much it is linked to our mind and how much it renews itself, since our cells have been replaced in five years, but it is nonetheless of physical origin and functions as a mechanism by chemical and physical reactions which, little by little, lose their vigor. One day, by accident or simple wear and tear, our body can no longer maintain its physiological activity and ceases to function. All the energy particles that compose it return to the mass of elements for future use.
If our body began to exist and function at our birth and ends its functions and existence at death, it is not the same for our real being, our personality, for whom birth and death are only significant events in an indestructible life.
In truth, birth and death are only changes in levels of consciousness that allow us to experience eternal life in the space-time interval. We are here and now in this interval, to learn all the lessons that circumstances offer us. This stage of life allows us to rediscover for ourselves and freely our belonging to the unity of all things. At the same time, it gives us the opportunity to participate in the creation of the very space and circumstances in which we act on earth.
DEATH IS SIMPLY THE TECHNIQUE WE USE TO ESCAPE THE LIMITATIONS OF EARTHLY LIFE
Death is at the same time a conclusion and a liberation, it is the most wonderful event of this phase of life.
“Love of adventure, curiosity, and dread of monotony—these traits inherent in evolving human nature—were not put there just to aggravate and annoy you during your short sojourn on earth, but rather to suggest to you that death is only the beginning of an endless career of adventure, an everlasting life of anticipation, an eternal voyage of discovery.” (UB 14:5.10)
We really wonder what these horned devils and these ragged ghosts are doing in this transition towards the light, nor the lamentation ceremonies. A personal understanding of the joyful meaning of death is essential to eradicate from our deep mind these absurd images and superstitions which too often still influence us. When we make the effort in all serenity to understand the meaning of death, we discover that our earthly life has acquired a new value and that our behavior naturally harmonizes with difficult circumstances.
How could we, for example, speak to the dying if we ourselves have not understood death. The fear resulting from our ignorance is very often the unconscious pretext for hiding from the sick the seriousness of their condition, thus depriving them of the possibility of preparing for this transition. They know that they are going to die and need to talk about it calmly. Very often we find ourselves uncomfortable and add our own insecurity to their worry. (Books by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross).
It is natural for our body to fear the still mysterious circumstances that accompany physical death. But recent studies based on an impressive number of testimonies are entirely reassuring. They demonstrate that the event of the death of the body is neither painful nor frightening but, on the contrary, bathes in an atmosphere of peace and love.
Of course we have a human heart and the departure of a traveling companion, even understood by reason, makes us shed tears that are quite natural, like those of a child who is hurt. But in truth, we cry for ourselves. Let us keep above all our full image of the beloved freed from all that made him pain and suffer, from his joy in grasping with more vivacity the values of truth, beauty and love of which he had here only vague reflections.
In times to come, the departure of our companions will be a joyful ceremony, the accomplishment of a first step towards the light, an awakening of consciousness to a higher level on the eternal path towards God.
We can now already understand and adopt this attitude and thus bring immense relief to the suffering that so many of us impose on ourselves through simple ignorance of the truth.
Fernand DE VINCK
Breine l’Alleud (Belgium)