Death is Our Companion
My 13-year-old nephew died of a rare blood disorder that stayed hidden until three days before it took his life. The shock of the statement is enough to stop people in their tracks, let alone the reality behind the statement. Death can come at any time, at any age, in any circumstance. If we are wise, it is our constant companion, reminding us to stay awake. It can rattle us out of our normal calm and complacent acceptance of the dreamstate, if we are still unaware of Reality with a capital “R.” However, even aware of Reality, the shock of the sudden death of a young person brings a palpable heartache. Certainly, it has produced a shattering of the hearts of those close to him.
The human body is frail. Even those who take exquisite care of their bodies, and have the resources to spare no expense, will eventually succumb to illness and death. How do we live in light of this truth? Soberly. Compassionately. Adroitly. As the shock wore off, and the numbness gave way to feeling, grief was and is my companion, as well as Death. There is no adequate explanation to offer the bereaved, even though inwardly my thought is ‘The Absolute is taking back a part of Itself: it gives Itself into human form, and returns to Itself when it decides to dissolve that form.’
Whether we’re here in this three-dimensional construct, or awake from this dreamstate, we’re still in a body. We can say, speaking a bit too imperiously from the Transcendent point of view, that “Nothing is happening and Everything is perfect, even the death of a boy.” Yet even as we speak or write those words, we feel the sensation in our throats, or the perception of our fingers striking the keyboard. Death will take the one who takes refuge in the Transcendent and refuses to acknowledge the Immanent (here and now 3-D world), just as quickly as one who denies the Transcendent and acknowledges only the material world.
What do we do in the face of Death? Wake up to our True Nature as the Absolute Itself. Live as free from the distraction of the chattering mind as possible. Serve The Absolute in as many ways as possible. Comfort the grieving, even if they are ‘lost in the dreamstate’ and without denigrating their lostness. If we are no longer lost, we once were! The Absolute goes ‘down’ into form, awakens in and as and through these bodies, in order to serve Itself and know Itself in a multiplicity of ways. Our job is to cooperate with that, to surrender to that, and to accept the real suffering that exists in many forms here, including in saying goodbye to a wonderful 13-year-old boy. May our grief serve the good purpose of breaking our hearts open, so that more light shines through them in all directions.
May all people who read this ‘wake up’ in this lifetime: it is possible!