Course XVI - Teaching 14: Mystical Death
Under the Divine Master’s loving glance, the Son wakes from his lethargy, with his eyes dazzled by this Divine glance.
But as soon as his initial enthusiasm decreases and becomes stable, he discovers he still is very far away from the ideal he dreamed. Then he understands this: his own enemy is himself.
At this bitter recognition time, he says to his heavenly instructor:
“Master, inadvertently, gradually, I approached Your love through Your loving gifts. But as soon as I noticed there were veils separating me from You, a desire arouse in me: to conquer on my own what You had offered to me.”
“But, Master of mine, look at my sorrow: You are offering to me the eternity; you are offering to me a victory on the very Earth, but when I want to run and conquest it, the shadow of death intervenes between You and me.”
“I did not experience this tremendous fear ever before. My entire being sticks to life with unusual vigor.”
“Please, help me to overcome this instinctive fear. May I be able to break this gross nature of mine, by preparing myself, in this way, for the hour of hours.”
“Help me to overcome right now this ancestral fear, which prevents me from achieving a steady certainty at the final hour!”
Sweetly compassionate, the Master gives ear to this lamentation of the soul. He knows the tremendous power of the self-preservation instinct of the flesh at its transient abode. He knows that this fear of the soul is common among all men and embitters totally their living with its sorrowful presence.
Then the Master suggests to the soul:
“Son, you are eternal. Do not permit to be deceived by illusion. Who cares if your body dies? Who cares if your body lives or dies, when you are Mine?”
“You must achieve only this: to perceive your own nothing and to feel that peace by which you shall be further united with Me. The more devoid you are of your illusion of being something, the more united you shall feel with the full power that I am.”
“So, every moment in your life shall be equal to many lives of worldly men, and by coming into contact with the life of others and by perceiving the same power in yourself, you shall achieve the bliss of taking part in the Eternal Life.”
“Now, nothing is attractive to you; neither solitude, nor silence, nor worldly noise, nor passions can allure you. Results of prayers are not of your concern; you are dead.”
“Son of Mine, merge yourself into the nothing. This death shall raise you from the dead to the Eternity.”
What a precious moment! Then, devoid of all, deeply enraptured, the Son wakes in Her Bosom: She knows the secret, number and measure of the whole Universe.
