I was born a Hindu. I was taught that there was an eternal cycle of death and rebirth. The only way to attain freedom ('moksha') from this cycle is, my parents told me when I was a child, by doing the right thing. I have spent most of my life either an atheist or an agnostic, fearing that the answer might be that we are flung into nothingness.

Not nothingness really, but something that we cannot explain because language is limited by the boundaries of human imagination, which in turn, it can be argued, is limited by the sum total of human experience.

Buddhism has always intrigued me. I remember reading What the Buddha Taught by Walpola Rahula before I turned eighteen and thinking for the first time after I had renounced whatever little faith I had as a child, that I got it. The belief that phase ingrained in me is that, if you choose to enter the fourth phase of your life when you are ready, it may be possible to attain true inner peace ('nirvana'). The object is still to escape rebirth.

So, whichever phase I'm in, be it the rational phase, which I am in most of the time, or the magical mystery tour phase, I guess we are flung into word-we-haven't-invented-but-is-similar-to-nothingness.