I just wanted to jump in and reply that you’re making a lot of sense and I can grasp your wisdom. It’s difficult to talk about spirituality on HN because a lot

I just wanted to jump in and reply that you’re making a lot of sense and I can grasp your wisdom. It’s difficult to talk about spirituality on HN because a lot of people here are very attached to their rationality. It’s a beautiful story you shared. Westerners often have this idea that they know what’s right and need to awaken everybody else (isn’t that the whole point of missionaries? ;-)). I do not understand this mummification thing, but I do understand the concept that death is a transition to other worlds. A common goal of most spiritual traditions is to purify the person so that when they die they can ascend to the best possible next thing in their evolution. The Toltecs talk about cultivating “fire” inside one’s system such that they can use it to propulse themselves straight up into what’s next - and not get lost wandering into their attachments. The Buddhists talk about letting go of karma so we can stop reincarnating due to our attachments. It’s all very similar. My sense is these monks aren’t trying to escape life, but rather maybe felt ready to propulse their souls back into the cosmos with intentionality. I don’t understand it, but I can’t have the audacity of judging people who I know nothing of and who, if I met, would likely read me like an open book. I do believe that Harry Potter is accurate when it separates magicians from moguls, and that as one reaches much higher levels of consciousness - their perceptions and abilities become unfathomable to the uninitiated. It doesn’t mean they can’t be wrong, or become twisted in their perceptions. But it means I’m not going to pretend I know better than them.