Truth is one of those things that escapes us; perhaps this escapism alludes to the fact that truth is unattainable. I am of the impression that we can only come to know images of truths. I believe Truth exists, but it is beyond our reach. By this, I do not mean that it is beyond our comprehension, but beyond or capacity. We live in a world of images, or shadows. We interact with reflections of truths. Each human being is a copy, a decaying copy of the Idea of man. In this same sense, man will forever interact and comprehend copies of everything else.
Upon death, man has the opportunity to interact with the eternal truths, but in reality, upon his dying, man loses the opportunity for although his substance can partake in truth, his essence is forever lost the instant his substance, i.e., the atoms or particles that form his being, cease to be one. The particles, these bit of stuff, proceed to commune with Truth or the Eternal Truths, i.e., Ideas, but this is of no use whatsoever to man, for his essence is no more.
In a sense, the communing of the bits of stuff with Truth is similar to the Platonic belief, i.e., the soul communes with Truth upon being liberated through death from the confines of the body. But I do not believe in the existence of the soul – perhaps the mind possesses attributes that I would dare say complement the idea of soul. The soul in the Platonic view, is the essence of man. Contrary to the Hellenic tendency to separate soul and body, I am forced to unite them. If ever they were two different entities, they are too conjoined that separation is futile if not ridiculous.
No, when man dies, his essence ceases to be upon the disbanding of the atoms. The breaking apart of these units of creation, the essence is lost though his substance remains, albeit fractured.
So it is of no use to man for the bits of stuff to partake in Truth, for though this fractured substance is or was him, his essence, the part of him that would be cognizant of Truth is no more.