In
her letter, Tamara speaks of coming to terms emotionally with the reality of her
circumstance, including feeling anger and transcending it — because, she says,
she cannot bypass the feeling of anger. It is not sufficient
for ego-transcendence to merely feel that death is a "perfect insult", as I once
described it. I have Spoken to her about this before. Her situation is the same
as everyone else's. In replying to her, I am Addressing everyone: Human
beings try to ignore the reality of death, simply because they feel they do not
have to deal with it immediately. But that is actually an illusion. You indulge
in distractions, and then when something occurs, as in Tamara's case, all of a
sudden you feel that you are in a "reality situation". But
everyone lives all the time under that potential threat on life. A threatening
disease may make the threat more real, but all must understand that they are in
the same circumstance as someone who has a terminal illness. The
business of life is fundamentally a struggle with the fact of death. I recommend
that everyone understand this, understand that your situation is the same as that
of someone with a terminal illness — from the beginning. Tamara
thinks she is in a more "real" situation now — because she, like everyone else,
has been oblivious to the reality of conditional existence. As My devotee, she
was not dealing with the reality of death. She was being My devotee nominally,
and that is not enough. You must really do the practice of this Way, as I have
said. To be a devotee of Mine, you must become involved in
reality altogether — both conditional reality and Unconditional Reality. Do not
waste your life in obsessive concerns about the reality of your conditional situation.
What is the mortality of the body? That mortality is primarily
what she has her attention on, and she is experiencing much emotion about it —
as is her intimate partner. However much he may be dealing with his own piece
of flesh in the boat, they are both riding the same wave. All
are riding the same wave, and it is a false concern. You are wasting your life
struggling to accept the fact of death. You should have faced that reality when
you were born. Remarkably, human beings do not. By virtue of being born, you are
involved in an immediate threat to life, and you do not even relate to the fact
of it. I am not blaming Tamara for what she is feeling and
experiencing. Her emotional struggle is perfectly natural. However, it does not
make any difference that it is perfectly natural. She is wasting life and struggling
with the fact of her own mortality, as if something could be done about it. Nothing
can be done. She is wasting time in a psychological crisis, and that is not real
sadhana. It is a dimension of sadhana, and I am not belittling it. I feel greatly
for her situation. I cannot escape it, either. But already,
throughout the event of her illness, I have addressed this matter. She is using
up time coming to terms with My Instruction to her. She, like all, is going to
die sometime. Her intimate partner, by the way, could drop
dead sooner than she does. To deny this is a false occupation. It is a dramatization
of egoity and a failure Spiritually. It is a form of suffering. The exercise of
transcending this illusion must be engaged. Tamara's business
is the Yoga of Divine Realization and Communion with Me, not struggling with conditional
reality. There is no "news" about death. Concern about death is just a preoccupation
with egoic self and the emotional struggle with the reality situation of conditional
existence. It is a failure to locate the Spiritual Divine and
to become preoccupied with That. Being bodily occupied with the Spiritual Divine
is the Yoga of the devotional and Spiritual relationship to Me. Either
you will surrender into Communion with Me or you will not. Now is the time to
get on with it and stop bargaining with Me and with Spiritual life, which, in
her case and everyone's case, requires becoming Divinely Enlightened in Communion
with Me instead of boo-hoo-ing about your piece of meat. I
am trying to straighten her out, so I have to make hard sayings sometimes, so
that she can allow herself and others to really take advantage of this opportunity
she has. She is wasting her opportunity if she remains preoccupied with mortality.
This is the time in her life, given by Grace, for the sake
of Spiritual maturity. This woman is not dead. She is alive, and she has been
sensitized to mortality. This is her opportunity to forget about that mortality
and do the Yoga that I have Given and enter into this Great Process with Me. Death
is a perfect insult to those who have been intensively ego-possessed. That ego-possession
is what she is suffering. That is what all her emotions are. Tamara, and all,
must enter into the Fullness of the Spiritual Divine. That is the only relief
from this obsession. Avatar Adi Da Samraj, November 26, 2001 |