Go somewhere that you can be undisturbed for a little while. This post should take around 15 minutes or so to read, so allow yourself that much time plus a little extra just in case, if there is anyone around, simply ask them to not disturb you for a little while. Get into a comfortable position. Give yourself permission to have a few moments to take a break from reality. There is nothing you need to do. Take three deep slow breaths, take your time, no rush.
Once you are feeling relaxed and at ease go ahead and imagine you're in a dimly lit room filled with people. These people could be your closest friends or family. If you don't have anyone close to you in your life, they can simply be people with whom you feel safe with. If you are more comfortable with strangers, they can all be strangers. The people themselves are unimportant, just whomever you are able to feel relaxed and comfortable with. The room can look like anything you want it to, whatever makes you feel safe and comfortable, the room can be as detailed as you would like, the room itself is also unimportant.
In the middle of the room there sits a pedestal, and on that pedestal sits an unlit candle. The candle itself can look however you want it to. It can be scented or unscented, whichever you prefer. Everyone in the room is standing in a circle around this unlit candle looking at it. Everyone is spread out to a distance which makes you feel comfortable and not overcrowded. If you feel a little overwhelmed due to there being too many people, imagine a few of them leaving until there is the right amount of people for your comfortability. There is no right number of people to be in the room, just whatever you are comfortable with.
Once the room is set up and everything and everyone is how you would like it to be, everyone in the room focuses their attention on the unlit candle. Everyone in the room is fully aware that the candle currently has no flame, it is simply a candle. We can all agree to this fact as we see no evidence whatsoever of a flame. As we all stare at this candle, someone suggests that we should light this candle and create a flame in which we can look at. There seems to be a mutual agreement among everyone in the room including yourself as to lighting the candle. It is at this point the flame has come into creation, not physically, but in our minds. No one in the room is able to physically witness the flame as of yet since the candle has not been lit, but we are all able to visualize what the flame will look like. We are all able to imagine feeling it's heat if we go near it. The flame becomes very real to us in our minds even though there is still no physical flame.
Someone walks up to the candle, pulls out a lighter, and lights the candle, then returns to their place in the circle around the candle. We all stand in the circle watching the flame. We all watch it flicker and glow. We see the life of the flame, how it moves on its own accord. We watch as its light dances all around the room, we watch it breathing the oxygen in the room, as we take turns walking up to it and put our hands near it, we can feel the heat radiating from the flame. There is no doubt in anyone's mind as to the reality of this flame. We all agree that this flame exists, this flame is here now, and we are all witnessing it. This flame is full of life and energy. No one can dispute that this flame is real in this moment.
All that seems to exist within this moment is that flame, everything else fades away as we all watch it. It becomes the most beautiful thing that any of us has ever witnessed or experienced. We are overcome with the strongest feeling of peace and serenity that we have ever known. We become one with this flame and are unable to distinguish ourselves from this flame. We all fade away and all that is left is the flame. In this moment there is nothing wrong with the world and all is well.
After a time, we notice the flame has melted most of the candle. We become aware of the fact that this flame will in fact die out and be no more. We have become so connected with this flame that we identify ourselves with it and can't even fathom the possibility of it just vanishing. We Love this flame, and we don't want to lose it. We ask ourselves where it will go when it leaves us. We ask ourselves why it even needs to leave at all. We don't want to lose this flame; we don't think it's right or fair. Despite our protests, the flame starts to flicker and becomes smaller and weaker. We can see it struggling for oxygen as it fights to stay alive. We can see that the flame itself doesn't want to go out. We want to help save it, we want to keep it alive, but we know there is nothing that we can do. The candle is fated to go out.
The time comes and the flame flickers for the last time giving off its last little bit of light and warmth and disappears. All that is left is smoke rising up from the charred wick of the candle. We stare in disbelief as the flame is no more. We can still smell the smoke filling our nostrils, we can still see the flame in our mind, and we can still feel it's warmth on our skin, but it is no more. We now stand in what feels like an empty room. It feels empty and lifeless without the flame. We became so attached to the flame that we are left with a feeling of grief and bewilderment. Why did the flame have to go out? We all just stand there in disbelief and questioning what to do now.
Hours pass and there is no longer any evidence of the flame ever having existed. We can no longer see its glow, we can no longer feel its warmth, and we can no longer smell any residue of smoke that was left behind. There is nothing, even the candle itself has vanished leaving an empty and lonely pedestal in the middle of the room. A new person walks into the room and asks us why we are all standing in a circle around this pedestal. We explain to them that there was the most beautiful flame that any of us had ever been witness to and how we all become one with this flame. They stand there and look at us as if we were insane. "What flame?" they say as they look at us in disbelief. We try to explain to them that there was in fact a flame and how we all witnessed it. They simply respond with "prove it" and yet we can't. We realize that we have no way to prove that this flame ever existed.
The flame only exists within our memory now. We all remember the flame and the time we spent with it even though there is no evidence that it ever existed. All at once we realize that the flame still lives on with us, within our collective memory of it. We realize that it doesn't matter whether we can prove it existence to anyone else or whether or not anyone even believes us, because we know what we experienced, and no one can take that away from us. We know that it was real and that it was alive, and we are grateful for having the opportunity to be with it and enjoy its presence while it was here. That flame will stay with us for the rest of our lives and will live on through us.
A new form of sadness comes over us as we realize that the flame will only live on as long as we are all still alive. Since the flame only lives on within our memories, once the last memory is gone so will the flame be also. We know we can't give our memories to anyone else; we don't have a method of transporting memories into another person's mind and even if we did it's the experience that makes it real. A memory is just an image or a description of an event. The thing that makes a memory real and meaningful is being able to live within that memory from a first-person perspective. We all know that movie made from someone's memories, is just that, a movie. It's just a story to us. It's not personal to us since we didn't directly experience it. We come to the conclusion that the best way to honor the life of the flame is to cherish our own memories of it. When we die, the flame dies with us, and we accept it for what it is. We may not like it, but what more can we do? We have no other choice.
We take a deep breath as we leave this room within our mind. Feel free to stretch your muscles or readjust. Maybe wiggle your toes. Take a moment to assess how you're feeling or what thoughts might be going through your mind if you would like and when you are ready feel free to read on.
You are that flame, and that flame is you. The flame represents your life. When we were looking at the unlit candle, that was when you weren't born yet. You didn't exist yet. When someone thought about creating you, which was more than likely your father or mother, that is when you came into existence spiritually. You didn't exist yet in physical manifestation but simply in thought. When someone lit the candle that is when you were born into this world and came into physical manifestation. You lived your life surrounded by all the people that you choose to be in your life. They all witnessed your existence and had memories created with you in them. They all lived with you and became one with you as they watched your life.
Your body will die, the same way the flame did. You will burn through the candle of life and there will be nothing to keep you in this realm any longer, you will have fulfilled your purpose. All the people in your life, will grieve you and feel lost without you. Your spirit will live on for a while, the same way the smoke from the flame lingers on for a while after it goes out. Eventually all the people that were in your life will be forced to face the fact that you are gone and will be forced to move on with their own lives. You will live on in their memories, they will cherish and Love you until the day that their flame goes out. After the last person who knew you personally dies, you will be no more, there will no longer be any firsthand experience of you or your life, all there will be is stories of you, but that is all they will be, just stories.
Even the stories of you will eventually fade away. Given enough time, it will be as if you never existed and yet you did. There will be no evidence of your existence the same as there was no evidence there was ever a flame. Thousands of years from now, you will officially have never existed to anyone who is alive at that time in the future. Yet you exist now. You have people in your life who Love you now, you have people in your life who are witnessing you now, and you have people in your life who have memories of you now.
You didn't exist in the past before you were a thought in anyone's mind. Just as the flame didn't exist before anyone thought of it. You won't exist in the future when there is no longer evidence of you and after all the memories and stories of you fade away. You only exist now and since you exist now, that makes you real, just as real as anything else that exists right now. When can you exist but now? Now is the only time that you have. You don't have the future and you don't have the past. The truth is, you were fine before you came into physical manifestation in this world, and you be fine after you leave the physical manifestation of this world. Need no to worry about what isn't happening right now. Don't regret the past and don't worry about the future for now is literally all you have. Don't waste it. Love and Peace!