Page 121 - Microsoft Word - SPIRIT AND THE MIND.doc

Death’s Lesson
CHAPTER ELEVEN
ALTHOUGH THE mind is our most powerful tool for adaptation to the outer world, it may also be the source of our greatest obstacle to awareness of inner reality. It has almost infinite power to hide from awareness our most profound spiritual and mystical experiences. Why is it that more of us don’t have a vision of cosmic unity, or cannot grasp the reality and awesome mystery of our imminent death until we are facing it? How many of us have a clear vision of our finite mortality in a cosmos whose bewildering dimensions defy measurement?
To find immortality, we must face the mortal fear of mind-ego death with openness and innocence. Out of fear we hide for the brief moment of our life—avoiding, resisting—until one day suffering and death come to shake us from slumber, brushing aside the mesmerizing delusions of insignificant mind with a passing shrug— to reveal the unfathomable. For what do we know of death? Only that it is, and that before its awesome reality, our soul trembles. To confront this great mystery directly and honestly is to be humbled,
105