A TALE OF ‘EXISTENCE’ AND ‘NON-EXISTENCE’

"Once Upon a Time, There Was and There Was Not…"

All fairy tales begin with the words: "Once upon a time, there was and there was not…"

Once upon a time, in a time long past—when camels were town criers, when fleas were barbers, and when I was rocking my mother's cradle—there existed a planet within one of the billions of galaxies stretching endlessly in the void. The inhabitants of this planet called it Earth. On this planet, there were both living and non-living beings, and among them was a creature called human.

One day, a human being suddenly opened their eyes to a life they had never known, in a place they had never been. This event was called birth. And with birth came death. The world was a place of opposites, of duality.

Samsara, a Sanskrit-derived term, primarily means the world in modern languages. In Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism, it describes the cycle of reincarnation or rebirth.

According to the general belief in these religions, when a person dies, their karmic account carries over to the circumstances of their next life. One of the fundamental concerns of these traditions has been how to break free from Samsara’s endless cycle of death and rebirth.

Samsara, a shared concept in major Indian religions, defines the cycle of life, death, rebirth, existence, and non-existence.

Through experiences of birth and death, the soul transitions from non-existence to existence and back again, maturing and evolving along the way. This journey is known as the soul’s path of evolution. The word evolution (tekâmül) refers to growth, development, and transformation. Spiritual evolution can be defined as the soul’s progression toward its ultimate state of perfection.

The concept of liberation from the cycle of Samsara is expressed differently across various cultures.

In a broader sense, it can be understood as the experience of Enlightenment—the moment when a person unites with their true essence within the life they have been given.

Mevlânâ Rumi described this journey of evolution as follows:

"I died as a stone and became a plant.I died as a plant and became an animal.I died as an animal and became a human.So why should I fear death?"

"Have I ever become less by dying?Or have I ever fallen into disgrace?"

"One day, when I die as a human,I will become a being of light,An angel of dreams."

"Yet my journey will not end there,For everything but God will perish,And I will become something no eye has seen,No ear has heard."

"I will shine like a star above the stars,Illuminating the path beyond birth and death."

Once upon a time, there was Existence and Non-Existence…

And this was the tale of humanity.

Gökçe YILMAZ