Chapter 2 

The Birth — Death Process 

More than 200 thousand people are born each day. The circumstances vary from the very primitive to high-tech. While some of us were met first by the sight of the night sky others were amazed by the bright light of the operating theatre. No matter. We are all part of one humanity, born at this moment in this place and in no other. And for each of us the origins from which we take our form relate back to the same process: conception. 

It is the miracle of life that everything is based upon this same process. We jokingly refer to the birds and the bees but that is just it! Behind all creation, existence, behind all living matter seen and unseen is the same process of life; we see its form in the time between birth and death; its substance is the material of life — life force. Life force, like a magnet, draws matter to itself. After conception the fertilised ovum divides and the single cells multiply to form the embryo. The life force that will become a human, a fish, a giraffe draws in the material to clothe itself for living in accordance with the pattern of its type of being. If the life force is strong then the body will be strong. If the life force is weak then the vehicle created for that life will be weak. If the life force dwindles and ceases then the form will be left, an uninhabited shell which will dissolve back into undifferentiated matter. Life declines into Death. 

At any point during our conscious existence we may gauge the level of activity of life force in ourselves or in another. When the life force is strong in a plant it is visibly healthy, growing and prolific. If it is mature within its cycle of growth then the life force is gradually condensed into the seed or root in preparation for a new spring. If it is declining then the leaves fall, stems collapse and the plant will die. The process is the same throughout nature. We can observe the strength of the life force at the vegetable, animal or human levels. 

How the life force works within us as human individuals is determined by many complex factors. While so called genetics may account for many of the physical characteristics of our children it is clear that other influences bear strongly upon the individual. Even when we share the same parents as children we are conceived in a different situation, a different time. What happens at conception and how the forces of life shape us may be difficult to assess. Being beyond the realms of physical measurement they are beyond the realms of conventional science, they belong to the metaphysical, the intangible. Yet every mother knows the circumstances of pregnancy and many can be sure of the moment of conception and the events that led to it. The more we are in tune with our body the more we hear its rhythms and messages of change. And without the need for astrology or mystery we can agree that the emotional circumstances that attend pregnancy and the creating of a new life form are instrumental in shaping it. Indeed it is the purpose of this book to illustrate how the strength of the life force is related to the emotional state of each and every one of us. 

Broadly speaking the proposition is this. At the outset we are all pretty well strong in life force. But as the difficulties and experience of life on earth are encountered we are apt to close off from life and move towards death. Negative emotional states (fear, anger, indecision etc.) constrict the flow of vitality just as fatty deposits in the arteries constrict the flow of blood. 

Life is about change and the facility for change. The greater the potential to continue living with the greatest potential for change, the greater the abundance of life. At the extreme we can see that extinction in life is the failure to adapt. If an organism cannot adapt to a change in climate it dies. The greater the potential for existence in a wide range of conditions the more prolific the life. Man is said to be an adaptable species in physical terms. But what holds true for the life potential physically is also applicable in other realms. We are more than a physical being and life is more than physical adaptability. 

As a simple expression of this we all know how the child has a potential to become many things. “When I grow up”, says the little boy, “I am going to be a racing driver, or an explorer...” The potential for either is there. But come 40 the potential for racing circuits seems to have faded and a wish to explore has a settled dust over it like schoolboy annuals left piled up in the attic. Either possibility could be reawakened however just as the potential for life can be rejuvenated. “Great-grandmother goes ballooning” brings a smile but it is always possible. Then again the potential for being an explorer can be developed in another way: as an explorer not of the outer world but of the inner regions of being - the landscape of our heart and mind. But such an exploration would need adaptability and the facility for change, it would require a greater potential for life. Thus old folk can be full of life, interested in new possibilities and discoveries and the young may close off in boredom. Life generally gives up on those who give up on it. 

If life is the potential for change then a good illustration of it is a colony of bees. There may be 50 thousand insects in a hive. Each acts as a part of the whole, relating all its actions to the welfare and needs of the colony, fetching now nectar, now water, collecting pollen to feed the young or cleaning the cells in the wax brood combs for new eggs and larvae. The worker bees are not, as is often thought, obedient servants of the queen, rather they are individuals responding to the call of life. Because of this bees show an amazing ability to work with change always getting on with things as they are, responding directly to the present situation in accordance with the law of their being. If circumstances alter within the hive - maybe the queen dies or the hive is knocked over, maybe the day is very hot/cold or there is found to be insufficient space to store the incoming nectar - whatever happens the bees will work to continue the life of the colony in the most advantageous way. The pathway of life force between action and response is kept clear of difficulties. Of course there are occasions when bees cannot make up their minds but they are exceptional. 

In terms of what bees do we can say they have a remarkable ability to adapt to change and life. But to perceive the life force at work in a hive it may be necessary to experience it, not as a set of theoretical probabilities (what will the bees do if this were to happen?) but as a living thing. Most people are afraid of bees because they might sting (life can be painful) but to sense the strength and beauty of this form of life we need to get close to it. We will feel it if we stop thinking of ourselves and we will rejoice in its strength if we stop feeling our strength threatened. 

It is the same generally in life for us. If we are always thinking of ourselves we cannot experience the beauty of another being. If we see the other being as a threat to our strength and we react with a defensive posture to life, closing ourselves off in order to protect what we have, then we shall suffer. First we suffer because we miss the joy of relationship and communion with life and then we suffer because we close and constrict the movement of the life force within. It becomes suffocating, like breathing the stale air in a closed room. We suffer from ourselves as Dr Bach observed. Experience shows that the opposite reaction is the more rewarding. If we open ourselves to the experience of life we find happiness, strength and love. This is made more real in the difference between working with our head and working with our hearts. The opening of our hearts opens us to the experience of loving life. 

A love of life is essential. When we suffer we think: how can I love life? But when we love life we will not be in suffering. It is a little bit the chicken and the egg. Which came first the suffering or the resentment? The suffering feeds the negative emotion (which constricts the life force) and the negative emotion causes the suffering. Which came first is academic. 

When we act with a love of life we will only be concerned with the present way out of the problem: that is an instantaneous decision. And from that moment onwards, when we decide to love life, the potential and the future will change. 

All nature works for the future. Bees collect their honey, trees and plants produce their millions of seeds, birds lay their eggs. Beneath the ground roots extend their shoots, nests of worms are knotted in obscurity while the moles tunnel blindly towards each other. It is through abundance that nature survives. This theme of generosity is familiar enough to us. But again it points to the way of life. Both on and in the land, the rivers and seas and in the air the myriad forms of creation show the process of life. We are a part of it. 

At 1256 hrs today a child is being born. Now at this moment, as this child is writing. All the life stands before it in potential. In a room, in a town, in this part of a country is the physical location. In what other circumstances we can only guess. At the exact point from which we progress the easiest things to describe are the physical locations. The subtle world, the metaphysical, is not so clearly mapped out. The pattern of the life force, the way that life expresses itself for that being, is more ambiguous. We tend therefore to look at the physical components of life. So we can imagine the mother and the child within her; she working to bring to birth another being. How the child is born continues the story of its previous months of life. Is the birth traumatic? Is the mother anaesthetised? Is the father helping? Is the child unwilling? Are the others sympathetic, kind, loving or are they worried by their own difficulties and self-absorbed? Is the child born amid fears and uncertainty or surrounded by harmony and love? All these impressions will focus in the life of that small body. 

The child is born. What happens next? Is it a disappointment (Oh dear, not another boy!)? Was it all a shock, not what we had expected? Our first reactions imprint themselves strongly and will probably continue to do so. If it is taken away from the mother how will they both react emotionally? Every event will be recorded as part of this child’s life, whether it is remembered consciously or not. If we try to imagine the countless impressions that are registered by each of us, just in the first few weeks of life, we may wonder what could possibly hold such a record. The answer is that we are that record. 

How the unique record of our lives play upon us we each know. Most of us, at some time in our life, try to discover the circumstances of our birth, just as a traveller will return to his native town. Equally we might recall the vivid moments of drama, the times of pain and sorrow, happiness and joy like streets and buildings in that town. We often walk in the lanes of our memories. Some of us have had the experience of working to revisit such places through the various techniques employed in workshops and groups. The journey of self-development often begins with a knowing of our past. But we should not spend too much time in the past. It is true that we have been through many experiences but they do not have to control us now. We are still alive and the story is not over yet. Life is for change and we can change our life now. The past may be the story of how we got here but it need not dictate what happens next.