The Gap Between the Six Worlds and the Seventh, Cont.

One other peculiar but common cause of troubled introspection is an individual's abrupt awakening to the fact that the "becoming" phase of his life is over, that he already is whatever he was destined to be, and that the answer to the question, "Is that all there is?" is dismally affirmative.

Regardless of the cause, whenever a person is sufficiently stunned by a revelation of his ego's fallibility, he will find himself in disillusionment's waters.

It may not, however, be supposed that because all people encounter serious problems, all will sooner or later find themselves in the swamp. Many egos can withstand any adversity. Many men can bury their sons at dawn and work out the details of a business deal by noon, or can survive the most brutalizing ordeal and before the blood is washed from their bodies begin haggling over the rights to their story, or can even experience tragic accident and be reduced to ponder no other questions but those which concern the merits of litigation.

Neither may it be assumed that people automatically relinquish their places in Samsara during the simple course of growing old. While it is true that the majority of those who confront the crimes and follies of their egos are of middle age, there are many outstanding examples of persons much younger who have made the transition and, on the other hand, persons much older who never leave Samsara at all. The Buddha walked out of his samsaric life when he was twenty-nine. Shankara, of Vedanta fame, had already founded many monasteries by the time he died at thirty-two. Sri Ramana Maharshi, the great Indian saint who died in l954, reached spiritual maturity while in his teens.

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