If the ‘Subject-Object’ Divide was the opening binary, the one on which all other binaries mount, the ‘Binary of Birth and Death’ is the closing binary, the ‘Point of No-Return’.
In the Dharmic Tradition, for those like Yājñavalkya who began the search all those many years ago, the finale, the ultimate crown, was to be more than trophy-wives and a yacht docked off Cannes.
They were looking for something much bigger. The grandest prize of all. Something called: ‘The Other Shore’.
‘Death’, as the Poets have written about for a thousand years, is the primal fear that fronts all mundane fright. The pivotal verses in the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad are in fact a response by Yājñavalkya to his wife Maitreyi’s query on Death. It’s the opening throw.
In this Tradition there is no consoling advise proffered that you will ‘Live Forever’-a thoroughly terrifying idea. No ‘All Day Golf’ in some heavenly Golf-Course; no ’72 Virgins’ at night.
Rather, things get a mite confusing. It no longer is clear what ‘Death’ means if you can’t find the file documenting your ‘Birth’.
The Unborn [Ajatham]. The Unarisen [Abhutam].
In the celebrated lines of a Satori [‘Enlightenment’] verse:
‘How wondrous! How wondrous! There is no Birth and Death from which one has to escape; nor is there any supreme knowledge [Bodhi]after which one has to strive…all the complications [Koans] numbering 1700 are not even worth the trouble of describing.’
Not-Two 