You ask if we believe death is avoidable. Let me answer in the words of the Siddha: `The human body is built up from the individual cell, like the bodies of plants and animals, whom we love to call younger and less evolved brothers. The individual cell is a minute microscopic unit of the body. By a process of growth and division, repeated many times, this minute nucleus of a cell-unit results at last in a complete human being, built up of almost countless millions of cells. These body cells specialize for certain different functions but they retain, in the main, the characteristics of the individual cell whence they arose. This individual cell may be looked upon as the torch bearer of animate life. It passes on from generation to generation the latent fires of God—the vitality of all living beings, with an unbroken ancestry reaching back to the time when life first appeared on this planet.’ This individual cell has the property of unlimited youth. But what about the group cells called the body? The group cells arose from the individual cell repeated many times, retaining its individual characteristics, one of which is the latent fire of life, or Eternal Youth. The group cells, or body, function as guardian of the individual cell only during the short span of life as you know it now.
The most ancient of our teachers by inspirational means perceived the truth of the fundamental unity of life reactions in plant and animal. We can well imagine these teachers beneath the spreading banyan addressing their pupils as follows: `Look at this giant tree. The vital process going on in our brother, this tree, and in ourselves is fundamentally the same. Behold the leaves and the buds at the tips of the oldest banyan—how young they are—young as the seed from which the giant sprang into life. The life reactions of plant and man being alike, man can certainly profit by the experience of the plant. As the leaves and buds at the tips of the branches of the oldest banyan are as young as the seed whence it sprang, even so the group cells in man forming his body, need not gradually lose their vitality and die, but may grow young and evergreen as the ovum or individual cell itself. Indeed, there is no reason why your body should not grow as young and vital as the vital seed from which it sprang. The ever-spreading banyan, always a symbol of everlasting life, does not die except through accident. No natural law of decay, no old age process seems to exist within the banyan tree to affect injuriously the vital energy of its cells. The same is true of the human form divine.
There is no natural law of death or decay for man, except through accident. No inevitable old age process exists within his body or group cells—nothing that can gradually paralyze the individual. Death is, then, an avoidable accident. Disease is, above all, dis-ease, absence of ease or Santi—sweet, joyous peace of the spirit reflected through the mind in the body. Senile decay, which is the common experience of man, is but an expression that covers his ignorance of cause, certain disease conditions of mind and body. Even accidents are preventable by appropriate mental attitude. Says the Siddha: `The tone of the body may be so preserved that it may naturally resist with ease infectious and other disease, like plague and influenza.’ The Siddha may swallow germs and never develop disease at all.
Remember that youth is God’s seed of love planted in the human form divine. Indeed, youth is the divinity within man; youth is the life spiritual—the life beautiful. It is only life that lives and loves—the one life eternal. Age is unspiritual, mortal, ugly, unreal. Fear thoughts, pain thoughts, and grief thoughts create the ugliness called old age. Joyous thoughts, love thoughts, and ideal thoughts create the beauty called youth. Age is but a shell within which lies the gem of reality—the jewel of youth.
Practice acquiring the consciousness of childhood. Visualize the Divine Child within. Before falling asleep suggest to your consciousness, `I now realize that there is within me a spiritual joy-body ever young, ever beautiful. I have beautiful, spiritual mind, eyes, nose, mouth, skin—the body of the Divine Infant, which now, tonight, is perfect.’ Repeat this affirmation and meditate upon it quietly while falling asleep. Upon rising in the morning suggest to yourself aloud, `Well, dear (addressing yourself by name), there is a divine alchemist within.’ By the spiritual power of these affirmations during the night a transmutation takes place and the unfolding from within, the Spirit, has saturated this spiritual body and spiritual temple. The inner alchemist has caused dead and worn-out cells to fall and the gold of new skin to appear with perpetual health and loveliness. Truly divine Love in demonstration is eternal youth. The divine alchemist is within my temple, constantly coining new and beautiful baby cells. The spirit of youth is within my temple—this human form divine, and all is well. Om Santi! Santi! Santi! (Peace! Peace! Peace!)
Learn to smile in the sweet way of a child. A smile from the soul is spiritual relaxation. A real smile is a thing of true beauty, the artistic work of the `Inner Ruler Immortal.’ It is well to affirm—’I think a kind thought for all the world. May all the world be happy and blest.’ Affirm before taking up the work for the day—’Within me there is a perfect form—the form Divine. I am now all that I desire to be! I visualize daily my beautiful being until I breathe it into expression! I am a Divine Child, all my needs are being now and forever supplied!’ “
Learn to thrill yourself. Affirm, ‘Infinite Love fills my mind and thrills my body with its perfect life.’ Make everything bright and beautiful about you. Cultivate a spirit of humor. Enjoy the sunshine.
You understand that I am quoting from the teaching of Siddha. They are the oldest teachers known and their teaching antedates all history by thousands of years. They went about teaching the people and showing them the better way of life even before man knew the simple arts of civilization. It is from their teaching that the system of rulers sprang. But these rulers soon wandered away from the realization that it was God expressing through them. Thinking it was themselves, the personal, who were doing the work, they lost sight of the spiritual and brought forth the personal or material, forgetting that all comes from the one source—God. These rulers’ personal concepts gave rise to the great separations in belief and the wide diversity of thought. This is our concept of the Tower of Babel. The Siddha have preserved throughout the ages the true inspirational methods of God expressing through mankind and through all His creations, realizing that God is All and that it is God manifesting through all. They have never deviated from this teaching. Thus they have preserved the great fundamental Truth.

from The Life and Teaching of the Masters of the Far East by Baird T. Spalding

Originally written by Reverend Loveshade, with Princess Unicornia and Fairy Princess Yoshikyoko.

Note: this text uses genderless pronouns: e = he or she; em = him or her; es = his or her; es = his or hers; emself = himself or herself.

Once upon a time in the land of Nowhen, every human being on Earth was a child. They all lived in a beautiful garden filled with color-scented flowers and tasty fruit-bearing bushes and tall-talking trees. These were all watered by a sparkling brook and by fairies named Misty. The weather was always perfect and the food was always plentiful and delicious. The children played, ate, slept, climbed trees, swam, ran, skipped, and had lots of fun together and by themselves. They never had to worry about things like school, jobs, taxes, house payments, medical insurance, or clothes. They were just happy.

But the Goddess sisters Eris and Aneris weren’t. They fought continually. While Eris wanted the children to improvise their games, Aneris made up rules for them to follow. Then Eris would tease the children into breaking the rules, then Aneris would make more rules and add punishments, then Eris would teach the kids how to avoid getting caught, etc. The garden life which had been fun and beautiful was turning into a mess.

So one day the Goddesses made a compromise: the children would continue being children for awhile, but then they’d grow up. The sisters called on a fairy named Ditsy who lived in a big old tree named Big Old Tree, and appointed Ditsy to be the Adulthood Fairy. “There, now that’s done,” they said. Then Eris ran off giggling to create some chaos and Aneris chased after to end it, which left the fairy to sort things out alone. For the Goddesses never got around to telling the confused fairy what adulthood actually was.

But Ditsy was used to being confused, so e went skipping off happily to look for adulthood.

Soon the fairy saw a beautiful butterfly with wings of red, blue, purple, yellow, and green. “Surely something so beautiful must be wise,” thought the fairy. “Oh butterfly,” e said. “Can you tell me, please, when children become adults?”

“Of course,” said the butterfly. “Children start out crawling on all their little legs. But watch them change their little bodies. When they get their wings, they’re adults.”

“Thank you ever so much,” said the fairy, who skipped off happily.

Then the fairy saw a black bird feeding a caterpillar to some much smaller birds in a nest. “Hello birds,” said the fairy, smiling. “I see you’re all adults because you all have your wings.”

“Wings?” said the larger bird. “What’s that got to do with it?”

“Well,” started the fairy, “this butterfly said–”

“We eat butterflies,” said the bird. “They don’t know anything. When children are trained to fly, when they’re ready to leave the nest and go off on their own, that’s when they’re adults.”

“OK, thank you,” said the fairy just slightly confused, but e figured if birds ate butterflies they must be wiser. So e skipped on.

Then e saw a school of salmon all swimming upstream together. “I see you’re all still together,” said the fairy. “That means you’re all children.”

“Children?” said one of the salmon. “We’re all swimming upstream to spawn. We’re all adults.”

“Adults? But this bird said–”

“You’re taking advice from a bird? Ha! Birds can’t even breathe under water; what do they know?” said another salmon, who had to take a deep breath before continuing the hard swim. “When you want to have sex, that’s when you’re an adult.”

Other salmon said, “yep,” “that’s it,” “so true,” and “damn, I really want to have sex.”

“Hmm,” said the fairy, confused. But Ditsy figured a school of salmon must have learned a lot more than one bird, so e soon began skipping again, if a little less sprightly.

Then Ditsy saw a group of bonobo apes. Some were small, some medium-sized, and some were large. But they were all engaging in sexual activity with each other. “I see you’re all adults,” said the fairy, “because you’re all having sex.”

“Sex?” said a small girl bonobo who was having quality time rubbing Daddy. “What does adult have to do with sex?”

“Nothing, dear,” said the young one’s Mommy, who was being humped by the girl’s young friend. “Don’t listen to fairies.”

The fairy was very confused. “But the salmon all said–”

“You listen to fish?” said a female bonobo who was getting licked by another female. “Adulthood isn’t when you want sex–everybody wants and has sex. Adulthood is when you can produce children. Oh my, that feels good.”

Ditsy left completely confused, trudged home, and plopped on the ground in front of es tree. “How am I ever going to know when human children are ready to become adults? Is it when their bodies change, or when they’re trained to take care of themselves and can leave for a new home, or when they want sex, or when they can produce children of their own?” The fairy banged es head against the tree in frustration.

“How can I sleep when you plop on the ground, cry out loud, and bang me with your head?” said Big Old Tree. “Never mind,” said the tree, before the fairy could start a long tirade of apology. “Listen. My body never changes much, I never leave this spot and don’t plan to, I don’t want sex, and I’m not having any children. And I am not a child. But I can tell you when a child is ready to be an adult. It’s simple.”

“It is?” said Ditsy, excited.

“Of course. Just ignore all that animal stuff, and listen to your home tree. You can tell when a child is ready to be an adult by counting its rings. When a child grows enough rings, it’s an adult. Good day.” And with that, the tree went back to sleep.

“Count the rings!” said the fairy in an excited whisper, trying not to wake up the tree. “Count the rings. Count the rings? But humans don’t grow rings!”

But then Ditsy smiled. “Of course! People don’t have rings, but rings show years. I can know when a child is ready to be an adult by counting its years!”

So Ditsy Fairy spread the tale of the rings to people far and wide. Unfortunately, the fairy had no idea how many years it took to become an adult, and neither did anybody else. So every society made up their own number. This got more and more confusing with time. So whereas an adult needed 21, then 20, then 18 years in Norway in the 20th Century, in Monaco in the early 21st Century one had to have 21 years. And the magic number was 21 in the 20th but then later 18 in America, or 12, 14, 16 or 17 for some things, which ignored the Jewish tradition that it was 13 for boys and 12 for girls, or the Christian Bible/Jewish scripture which don’t give a minimum age at all. And that was not to mention the Indians in Guatemala who recognized adulthood at age 10, or the Christian Church in the Middle Ages which said the age of accountability, when you could be tried and punished and even executed as an adult, was 7.

Aneris tried to get societies to stick to a definite age to keep everything ordered. But the more laws they made that defined specific ages for things, the more chaos and disorder it created for those societies, and for Aneris. And that amused Eris no end.

So that is why societies that learn from nature consider the individual as an individual. They may say adulthood comes when a child’s body begins to change, or when a child is prepared for life, or when e is ready to mate, or when e is capable of having children. These cultures have different natural methods, but they all can work. And that is why societies that think that adulthood should be defined by an arbitrary age are the same ones that believe in fairy tales.
THE END

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others. –  Marianne Williamson

Go placidly amidst the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible without surrender be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit. If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter; for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.

Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

Exercise caution in your business affairs; for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals; and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself. Especially, do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth. Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here.

And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be, and whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul. With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.