Lack of better wording, is the spiritual realm essentially not just this universe?
 

What I'm trying to get at is, once this universe eventually dies out, what would happen to the "afterlife"?
Of course this would depend on what your idea of the afterlife is. Would said afterlife cease to exist as well, until another big bang (eternal return)? Could this be where multiverses play into part? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Hello

The Universe is a physical place or thing so yes that aspect can end. There too is that Universe that is energy and nothing in what we would see as physical matter. I feel that this is where the afterlife is held.


I am not sure on the big bang or even how everything came to be but I do feel that when someone passes they are energy in the purest form not connected to the confines of a body or matter.

Lynn

One perspective is that the physical universe is the densest plane of manifestation. There are more subtle planes which are given various names such as the astral plane, the mental plane, and so on. These are the planes of the afterlife.

Everything goes through cycles of manifestation and dissolution. These cycles may be called manvantara and pralaya, the out-breath and the in-breath of God, the Big Bang and the Big Crunch. So the physical universe will at some stage go out of manifestation, but the more subtle planes will remain. Then at some point a new cycle of physical manifestation begins.

The same applies (on a smaller scale) to our planet and also the solar system we inhabit. These may be called mini-manvantaras and mini-pralayas within the greater cycle of the universal manvantara and pralaya.

And even this universal manifestation and dissolution also occurs within still greater cycles of Cosmic manifestation and dissolution, when the physical universe plus the subtle planes of our afterlife go into a greater pralaya, dissolving whence it came until the next manifestation.

Everything is cycles within cycles within cycles.

Peace.

Once everything was Brahman.

From Brahman came everything, when it manifested.

Male and Female it created, duality was born.

Out of this duality, the dance of Shiva and Shakti created this world.

When the Universe ends, the dance of Shiva will destroy all manifestations.

All will return to Brahman and time and space itself will end.

We will still BE, but in a dormant state, as if asleep. We will re-manifest again at the creation of the next universe, when time, space and separation from the Absolute will have meaning again.

Yes, in one sense: The material realm is permeated by the spiritual. There is a tendency to separate the two, as if the material is somehow a lesser or grosser existence, that the spiritual realm is something we need to "return to" or ascend to.

To which I would say: Material existence is not a mistake. We're embodied for a reason (or reasons). And if you learn how to look, is every bit as spiritual as non-material existence.

From my viewpoint I think the Universe is in itself the spiritual realm. Without any distinction or separation. As everyone and everything IS this universe. Therefore, by this definition, everyone and everything is also essentially spiritual by nature.

So, when we die, our energy simply returns to the Universal Energy from where we came, and our individual consciousness dissipates back into Universal Consciousness - without any conscious awareness.

I therefore don't believe in an afterlife as such. Quite simply that once I die I will continue to exit as this Eternal Universe :hug2:

All is "spiritual". Even the densest levels of solidity have spiritual meaning and purpose.
But only a small part of "all" is physical. Even the physical Universe, however massive it might seem, is a thin layer of solid manifestation.
The rest....is dimension after dimension of other life, existences, many of which will never have anything to do with physical density, which have no need of it.

There are many dimensions. What we call the afterlife is most likely a very tiny part of what is in existence.

The universe dying out is just the physical plane. Our real selves and our afterlife continues on. That energy is eternal.