Even such things we conceive as time or space, with their beginnings and endings, do not exist, in a formless reality.

As Ramana Maharshi has said, “Only that which lies beyond name and form is Reality. …It underlies limitations, being itself limitless. …It transcends ‘existence,’ ‘non-existence,’ etc.”

The importance of such a precept is that we consider our self to be one of the impermanent forms which appear as a segment of reality. When we come to recognize the true formless nature of reality, name and form—self and life—are understood to be un-real appearances in an unlimited reality.

Both of the forms which we conceive to be life and death are really arbitrary man-made discernments, from the standpoint of transcending such separative designations as “existence” or “nonexistence.”

Recognition of the nothingness of ultimate reality, which extends beyond all limited forms, is the basic foundation of those who experience a truly “spiritual life.”