On Morale of Death's Abundance: Masters' Level-1 Instructions on Tashī's Passing-On – Pt. 2 Ch. 1.9

The room pulsed with a subtle, almost tangible energy, as if the very air was alive with unseen forces. Drakos sat at the center of it all, his presence commanding, yet serene, like an ancient oak that stands unmoved amidst the storm. His hands rested on his lap, but his energy radiated outwards, stabilizing the currents swirling around us. I could feel the dreamstate enveloping us, the boundaries between reality and illusion blurring in a slow dance of shifting light and shadow.

The narrator’s voice, calm yet unwavering, resonated through the air, carrying with it a deep resonance of wisdom. It felt as though the words were not just spoken, but woven into the very fabric of the space itself.

"Death will not take anything from you; it will only teach you how to make life more abundant."

Tenzin, sitting beside me, shifted uneasily, his brow furrowed in confusion. He was the youngest among us, and the weight of such deep teachings still sat heavy on his heart. "But... how can death teach us anything?" His voice was quiet, almost hesitant. "Isn’t it just the end?"

Drakos met his gaze with a calmness that only came from years of transcending the illusions of time. "Death is not an erasure, Tenzin. It does not take—it reveals. What you call an 'end' is merely a transformation. It is a passage, a bridge into something new."

I frowned, absorbing Drakos’s words. "But how does it make life richer? If someone dies, aren't they just... gone?"

The screen before us flickered, its surface shimmering as an image of a river appeared. The river’s waters flowed endlessly, winding through landscapes of memory. The voice of the narrator returned, steady and profound.

"Life’s abundance does not lie in its length, but in its awakening. Death does not strip away your experiences—it simply returns everything to time, allowing you to see the richness of all you have held."

Drakos gestured toward the river, his eyes gleaming with an understanding that transcended the physical. "Look at the river, how it flows. Every drop of water has traveled through countless forms—rain, mist, ocean, ice—never truly lost, always changing. This is how life operates. Just as water changes forms, so too do we. The essence remains. The experiences accumulate."

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

Tenzin, still uncertain, frowned. "But if we change, don’t we forget who we were?"

The screen shimmered again, this time shifting to a battlefield. Souls, untethered, rose like golden wisps, luminous in the dim light. Some floated higher, merging into a greater radiance, while others hovered, hesitant, clinging to the echoes of their past lives. The images seemed to pulse with energy, each soul caught in its own moment of choice.

Drakos exhaled slowly, his gaze turning inward. "That is a choice each soul must make. Many fear change, just as the living fear death. But what if I told you that the more you understand, the richer your soul becomes? That even in death, wisdom carries forward?"

I felt a strange sensation in my chest, as though something deep inside me had shifted. There was a subtle unlocking, a stirring of realization. "So... even if we leave our physical form behind, we don’t lose what we’ve learned?"

Drakos nodded, his voice steady and unwavering. "Precisely. Every moment of love, of kindness, of struggle—it all remains. Death does not erase—it clarifies. It strips away the illusions, leaving only the truth."

Tenzin’s eyes widened as he watched the screen, his attention fully captured by the shifting images. A soul, trembling and uncertain, hovered in the balance. It released its hold on the material world, rising effortlessly into the unknown. The soul’s transition was graceful, yet tinged with vulnerability.

"So that’s why some souls stay behind…" Tenzin murmured, his voice barely a whisper. "They’re afraid to let go?"

Drakos smiled, the approval in his gaze warming. "Yes. They fear they will lose themselves. But in reality, they are only delaying their own evolution. They are still tethered to the illusion of what they were, and so they hesitate to embrace what they are becoming."

The narrator’s voice echoed once more, carrying the weight of truth. It resonated deeply, like a gong vibrating across the vastness of existence.

"What you have once held will never truly vanish. Death is but a process, a process that teaches you how to let go, how to transcend, how to understand the meaning of life."

I closed my eyes for a moment, allowing the truth to settle within me. The weight of the words fell like a gentle rain on my spirit. Death, once a shadow of fear, now appeared as the final teacher—the great revealer of all things hidden. It was in this revelation that life itself became more precious, more vivid, more complete. Death was no longer a thief; it was a guide, leading the way to a deeper understanding.

Drakos turned to us then, his gaze sharp and steady. "Now, do you understand?"

Tenzin inhaled deeply, his chest rising with the weight of what he had learned. "I... I think I do," he said slowly. "Death doesn’t take away who we are. It just shows us what really matters."

Drakos nodded, his expression softening with approval. "And that is the final gift of mortality—to teach us how to truly live."

As the dreamstate began to fade, the lessons lingered. The river continued to flow in my mind, its currents carrying the wisdom of the ages. I understood now that death was not the end, but a part of a greater cycle—an opportunity to understand life in its fullest, most profound sense.

----------------------------------------