It must be a fact for everyone who thinks about it that they will die some day. Most people do not think about it except when friends or relatives die, and it is at closer quarters than they are accustomed to, and then the thought strikes them with terror. Death is a riddle for most people. "No one has come back and told us how it is on the other side, and maybe there is not even any 'other side'", people usually say. It is therefore natural that in my lectures I also deal with the mystery of death, which will gradually cease being a mystery and will also cease being something that people feel anxious or terrified about.
      What then is death? First and foremost it is an experience that comes to absolutely all physical beings in this world. None of you believes that you will never have this experience, it being far too apparent in everything around us. Furthermore, death is not merely a process that will come some day; it is already present within you. You already began to die when you were born. Where is the tiny baby's body in which you came to this world? Where is the little child's face with which in excited expectation you looked forward to Christmas Eve, the little face that shone when as a child you encountered the wonderful story of Christmas, and when you experienced all the other happy hours of childhood?
      This face no longer exists on the physical plane. You have another face now. And if you are an old person today you may ask where is the young and agile body now that in youth you embraced the one you loved with. And where is the mature body with which you crowned your life's work and experienced the peak of your physical appearance in this life? These bodies, if you are an old man or woman today, are long since dead. An old person has actually experienced reincarnation or rebirth a good many times before he or she dies.