Epilog: Thoughts on Spring Time

Springtime reflects a particularly charming stage of life and is embedded in a wonderful spiral of being:

In spring all plant life awakes to fully unfold in summer, bear fruit in autumn and die back in winter. Dying seems sad, but it is a significant contribution to the awakening of new life in same beauty and even a little more every time. This does not mean that the old plant is of less value; without the old plant no new ones could grow: it contains the seeds for new plants. Although some plants do not awake again, plenty of new and beautiful ones emerge.

This example shows a principle of existence that is omnipresent in nature. Doesn't it apply to us, too - that we must relinquish the old to receive the new, to be able to make a step forward?

The secret of this principle is far more profound; in the coming and going, the old not only contains the new but continues to exist in the new.

This is still no adequate description of the mystery, which is difficult to put into words: The old is the new, even if the new is a little more.

Doesn't this also apply to our consciousness, our identity? Every day we acquire new knowledge and expand our consciousness, thus becoming "more" - although experience only occurs in the permanently fluent moment of the here and now and thus in the present.

This permanent expansion of consciousness has the potential for increasing universality and includes the principles of truth, reason and love. Is it not great if our consciousness or broadly speaking our "I" can be found in another identity i.e. in a "you"?

But also this mystery goes far deeper: Not only can I recognize my "self" in "you"; somehow the "I" and the "you" are one.

However, there is no evidence that this cycle must and will go on forever; it can be terminated by an incident in the universe or even by us, the human beings. For astronomers it is a certainty that life on earth will end sometime ..

On the other hand, there is no evidence against the belief that there will be a similar recurring cycle somewhere sometime. It does not matter "when" and "where" - the limitations of space and time will have been overcome by then.