> One of the lines from the Prayer of Saint Francis is:
>
> "It is in dying that we are born to eternal life".
>
> I think there are two ways to interpret this (and they may both be
> "correct"):
>
> 1. Through the death of the physical body, we are freed from the world
> of form, and so "we" are able to experience the essence of spirit,
> which is formless and timeless, and therefore eternal.
>
> 2. The "dying" that is referred to is not necessarily a physical
> death, but a dying to one's ego. When we have achieved the state of
> awareness in which we are no longer consumed by the world of form (or
> Maya as I think the Hindus would call it), only then can we experience
> the "eternal life" of the formless, or spirit.