Here and now I am. Born of my mother, who was born of the Earth, who was born of stardust, the parting gift of dying stars. Stars born in the Great Death-Birth, when Eternity died on the cross of Creation, and shattered into space, time, energy, and mind.
In his youth, Bob Dylan wrote that “he not busy being born is busy dying”. In his old age, his vision is clearer. “Can’t remember when I was born,” he now writes, “and I forgot when I died”.
Birth and death are advaita, they are not-two. The mind takes snapshots of life and then latches onto them, trying to catch hold of the endless flow. But the flow cannot be captured or imagined. One knows the flow only by becoming it, and one becomes it only upon realizing one was never other than it. Life and mind are advaita, too. They are not-two.
Today is my birthday. Twenty-eight cycles of the Earth around the Sun ago, I died to my mother’s womb and entered this afterlife, only to live through countless other death-births. That’s how long it’s taken me to discover the Great Death-Birth. To know it not as an event before time, but one outside of time. It is enough to return here and now, and I know It. In the eternal now, I and It are not-two.
Eternity, forever dying on the cross of Creation, forever resurrected. Its reflection caught in shattered fragments of space, time, energy, and mind… Is here and now. And there are no fragments.
May we be innocent of birth and death,
Simeon
“The way up and the way down are one and the same.”
— Heraclitus
Suggested Reading
The Ever-Present Origin by Jean Gebser
Gebser’s masterpiece reveals how time is not something we pass through, but something that passes through us, shaping perception, culture, and being. The Ever-Present Origin is a book about time, consciousness, evolution, and the eternal now that lives through it all. Order here and support my work at no extra cost to you.
This piece explores a vision of God not as a fixed being, but as something unfolding through time, through consciousness, through us. From starbirth to self-awareness, it traces the arc of becoming that ends where it began: the timeless mystery that pulses through every moment.
Thank you, Simeon , your birth brought a wonderful teacher to me and to so many seekers. We are all blessed.
This hit home. Thank you! It’s your birthday and yet you are so generous with us!