October 31^st is the eve of Samhain (“Sow-en”), the end of summer in the ancient Celtic reckoning of time. This evening between the summer and winter was seen as a gap in time during which the dead could return to the places they had lived. November 1^st was designated the Feast of All Saints by the Western Roman Christian church in 837, so this is a venerable holiday. Europe was not the only land where people believed in a special time when the dead and living were brought closer together. The Chinese traditional religion recognizes a similar time during the seventh month, when many Taoist and Buddhist Chinese offer food and ghost money to the hungry ghosts that supposedly roam the world. Just as the Celts celebrated Samhain with a common bonfire from which every household relit their home’s hearth, the Chinese observe certain evenings during the ghost month with communal feasts in which neighbors share food. No doubt many other cultures have similar occasions during which people remember their beloved dead. During such times folk traditions about ghosts and demons may mix with more authentic theological teachings about the soul and its immortality. Beliefs about ghosts and supernatural invisible beings such as jinn (genies, a concept popular in Islamic cultures) exist in parallel with religious teachings about the afterlife and what happens to us when we die. Today, when our culture directs our attention to the superstitious and vulgar ideas about the supernatural we will enjoy readings and meditations in remembrance of the dead.

There the wicked cease from troubling,

and there the weary are at rest.

There the prisoners are at ease together;

they hear not the voice of the taskmaster.

The small and the great are there,

and the slave is free from his master.

- The Book of Job 3.17-19

Glory be to Thee, O Lord my God!

Abase not

him whom Thou hast exalted

through the power of Thine everlasting sovereignty,

and remove not far from Thee

him whom Thou hast caused to enter

the tabernacle of Thine eternity.

Wilt Thou cast away, O my God,

him whom thou hast overshadowed with Thy Lordship,

and wilt Thou turn away from Thee, O my Desire,

him to whom Thou hast been a refuge?

Canst Thou degrade him whom Thou hast uplifted,

Or forget him

whom Thou didst enable to remember Thee?

He in whom desire has been stilled suffers no rebirth.

After death,

having attained to the highest,

desiring only the Self,

he goes to no other world.

Realizing Brahman, he becomes Brahman.

Freed from the body,

he becomes one with the immortal spirit, Brahman, the Light eternal.

- Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 4.4.6-7

Glorified, immensely glorified art Thou!

Thou art He

Who from everlasting

hath been the King of the entire creation

and its Prime Mover,

and Thou wilt to everlasting remain the Lord

of all created things

and their Ordainer.

Glorified art Thou, O my God!

If Thou ceasest to be merciful unto Thy servants,

who, then, will show mercy unto them;

and if Thou refusest to succor thy loved ones,

who is there that can succor them?

Glorified, immeasurably glorified art Thou!

Thou art adored in Thy truth,

and Thee do we all, verily, worship;

and Thou art manifest in Thy justice,

and to Thee do we all, verily, bear witness.

Thou art, in truth, beloved in Thy grace.

No God is there but Thee, the Help in Peril, the Self-Subsisting.

The Atman [Spirit] is beyond sound and form,

without touch and taste and perfume.

It is eternal, unchangeable, and without beginning or end:

indeed above reasoning.

When consciousness of the Atman manifests itself,

man becomes free from the jaws of death.

from the Katha Upanishad, Part 3

Not like this world is the World to Come.

In the World to Come there is neither eating nor drinking,

nor procreation of children or business transactions,

no envy or hatred or rivalry;

but the righteous sit enthroned,

their crowns on their heads,

and enjoy the luster of the Divine Splendor.

- Talmud, Berakot 17a

He is God, exalted is He,

the Lord of loving-kindness and bounty!

Glory be unto Thee, O my God, the Lord Omnipotent.

I testify to Thine omnipotence and Thy might,

Thy sovereignty and Thy loving-kindness,

Thy grace and Thy power,

The oneness of Thy Being and the unity of thine Essence,

Thy sanctity and exaltation above the world of being and all that is therein.

O my God!

Thou seest me detached from all save Thee,

holding fast unto Thee and turning unto the ocean of Thy bounty,

to the heaven of Thy favor,

to the Daystar of Thy grace.

Lord! I bear witness that in Thy servant Thou hast reposed Thy Trust,

and that is the Spirit whereunto Thou hast given life to the world.

I ask of Thee by the splendor of the Orb of Thy Revelation,

mercifully to accept from her that which she hath achieved in Thy days. Grant then

that she may be invested

with the glory of Thy good-pleasure

and adorned with Thine acceptance.

All who obey God and the Apostle

are in the company of those on whom is the grace of God

of the Prophets who teach,

the sincere lovers of Truth,

the witnesses [martyrs] who testify,

and the righteous who do good:

Ah! what a beautiful fellowship!

- Qur'an 4.69

O my Lord! I myself and all created things

bear witness unto Thy might,

and I pray Thee not to turn away from Thyself this spirit

that hath ascended unto Thee, unto Thy heavenly place,

Thine exalted Paradise and Thy retreats of nearness,

O Thou who art the Lord of all men!

Grant, then, O my God,

that Thy servant may consort with Thy chosen ones,

Thy saints and Thy Messengers

in heavenly places that the pen cannot tell nor the tongue recount.

O My Lord, the poor one

hath verily hastened unto the Kingdom of Thy wealth,

the stranger unto his home within Thy precincts,

he that is sore athirst to the heavenly river of Thy bounty.

Deprive him not, O Lord, from his share of the banquet of Thy grace

and from the favor of Thy bounty.

Thou art in truth the Almighty, the Gracious, the All-Bountiful.

O SON OF BEING! Bring thyself to account each day

ere thou art summoned to a reckoning;

for death, unheralded, shall come upon thee

and thou shalt be called to give account for thy deeds.

O my God, Thy Trust hath been returned unto Thee.

It behooveth Thy grace and Thy bounty

that have compassed Thy dominions on earth and in heaven,

to vouchsafe unto Thy newly welcomed one Thy gifts and Thy bestowals, and the fruits of the tree of Thy grace!

Powerful art Thou to do as Thou willest,

there is none other God but Thee,

the Gracious, the Most Bountiful, the Compassionate, the Bestower,

the Pardoner, the Precious, the All-Knowing.

I testify, O my Lord,

that Thou hast enjoined upon men to honor their guest,

and she that hath ascended unto Thee hath verily reached Thee

and attained Thy Presence.

Deal with her then according to Thy grace and bounty!

By Thy glory, I know of a certainly that Thou wilt not withhold Thyself

from that which Thou hast commanded Thy servants,

nor wilt Thou deprive her that hath clung to the cord of Thy bounty

and hath ascended to the Dayspring of Thy wealth.

There is none other God but Thee,

the One, the Single, the Powerful, the Omniscient, the Bountiful.

So will it be with the resurrection of the dead.

The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable;

it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory;

it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power;

it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.

1 Corinthians 16:42-44

You have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God,

the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering,

and to the assembly of the first-born who are enrolled in heaven,

and to a judge who is God of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant.

Hebrews 12.22-24

Chuang Tzu said,

"Were I to prevail upon God to allow your body to be born again, and your bones and flesh to be renewed, so that you could return to your parents, to your wife, and to the friends of your youth, would you be willing?"

At this, the skull opened its eyes wide and knitted its brows and said, "How should I cast aside happiness greater than that of a king, and mingle once again in the toils and troubles of mortality?"

Chuang Tzu 18

O SON OF THE SUPREME!

I have made death a messenger of joy to thee.

Wherefore dost thou grieve?

I made the light to shed on thee its splendor.

Why dost thou veil thyself therefrom?

. …the dust returns to the ground it came from,

and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

Ecclesiastes 12:7

Those who remember me at the time of death will come to Me.

Do not doubt this.

Whatever occupies the mind at the time of death determines the destiny of the dying;

always they will tend toward that state of being. Therefore, remember Me at all times.

Bhagavad Gita 8.5-7

You prefer this life, although the life to come is better and more enduring.

Qur’an 87.16-17

The world beyond is as different from this world

as this world is different from that of the child while still in the womb of its mother.

When the soul attains the Presence of God,

it will assume the form that best befits its immortality

and is worthy of its celestial habitation.

Gleanings 81

Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed,

we have a building from God,

an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.

II Corinthians 4:1

O my God! O Thou forgiver of sins,

Bestower of gifts,

Dispeller of afflictions!

Verily, I beseech Thee to forgive the sins

of such as have abandoned the physical garment

and have ascended to the spiritual world.

O my Lord!

Purify them from trepasses,

dispel their sorrows,

and change their darkness into light.

Cause them to enter the garden of happiness,

cleanse them with the most pure water,

and grant them to behold Thy splendors on the loftiest mount. - Abdu'l-Baha

A friend asked: "How should one look forward to death?"

Abdu'l-Baha answered:

"How does one look forward to the goal of any journey?

With hope and with expectation.

It is even so with the end of this earthly journey.

In the next world, man will find himself freed from

many of the disabilities under which he now suffers.

Those who have passed on through death, have a sphere of their own.

It is not removed from ours;

their work, the work of the Kingdom, is ours;

but it is sanctified from what we call `time and place.'

Time with us is measured by the sun.

When there is no more sunrise, and no more sunset,

that kind of time does not exist for man.

Those who have ascended

have different attributes from those who are still on earth,

yet there is no real separation.

"In prayer there is a mingling of station, a mingling of condition.

Pray for them as they pray for you!

When you do not know it, and are in a receptive attitude,

they are able to make suggestions to you, if you are in difficulty.

This sometimes happens in sleep. but there is no phenomenal intercourse!

That which seems like phenomenal intercourse has another explanation."

The questioner exclaimed; "But I have heard a voice!"

Abdu'l-Baha said:

"Yes, that is possible; we hear voices clearly in dreams.

It is not with the physical ear that you heard;

the spirit of those that have passed on are freed from sense-life,

and do not use physical means.

It is not possible to put these great matters into human words;

the language of man is the language of children,

and man's explanation often leads astray."

Someone present asked how it was that in prayer and meditation

the heart often turns with instinctive appeal

to some friend who has passed into the next life.

Abdu'l-Baha answered:

"It is a law of God's creation that the weak should lean upon the strong.

Those to whom you turn may be the mediators of God's power to you,

even as when on earth.

But it is the One Holy Spirit that strengthens all men."

Hereupon another friend

referred to the communing of Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration

with Moses and Elijah; and Abdu'l-Baha said:

"The faithful are ever sustained by the presence of the Supreme Concourse.

In the Supreme Concourse are Jesus, and Moses, and Elijah, and Baha'u'llah,

and other supreme Souls: there, also, are the martyrs."