When I speak of God, I am not speaking of a God that can be known with the mind. I am speaking of God as the present moment revealed. I am speaking of God as the silent Presence at the very heart of all things present. I am speaking of God who exists at the very heart of silence within you, and who is not separate from you. I am speaking of God as Eternal Is-ness. I am speaking of God as pure consciousness. I am speaking of God as the source from which everything arises and into which everything returns. I am speaking of God as everything and nothing. I am speaking of God as the beginning and the end. I am speaking of God, not from my mind, but from within the mystery.

~Leonard Jacobson

Originally published in The Edge Magazine

Question: I have been a spiritual seeker almost all my life. I have had many wonderful experiences and feel I have grown and evolved immensely. However, there is still one area which I feel has not changed much and that is my fear of dying. How can I overcome this fear of death?

Leonard’s answer: If you are not present, and you are functioning mostly from within the mind, then death is always approaching, and it creates fear in two ways. The first is that we are afraid of the unknown, and generally what happens after death is unknown, and so we are afraid of it. To the extent that you are afraid of death, you will miss life, simply because the fear of death keeps you in the future, and life is only truly experienced in the present.

Fear of death also arises because of our attachments. The more attached we are to people or things, the more we will fear losing those things and so the more we will fear death. (more…)