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

The world of the ego simply does not recognize a separate and distinct world of the spirit. In terms of spiritual geography, the Mountain of Nirvana cannot even be seen from the Wheel of Samsara. People on the Wheel do not know that to get to Nirvana it is absolutely necessary to negotiate the Swamp. (There is no other way.) They believe to a certainty that Nirvana is simply a refined state or higher altitude of Samsara. They acknowledge the existence of spiritual people but they suppose that spirituality is merely a condition of an altered ego, an ego which, perhaps, has purged itself of all outward signs of sin and, as a reward, has been glorified and elevated. They cannot conceive of losing their ego, a loss, they think, equal to losing their mind or at least their humanity. To them, egoless creatures are creatures without identities: vegetables, amoebas, and lunatics - groups in which nobody willingly includes himself.

Further, even if they were to concede that disillusionment and alienation are religious problems, they would misunderstand the terms of the solution. Egos, by nature, strive to dominate other egos, a control which invariably extends to fiscal interests. People in Samsara instinctively fear that religion may liberate a person from his assets as it liberates him from his pain. Jesus might have advised those who wished to become his disciples first to give their money to the poor, but no person in Christendom ever advises a relative to be so wantonly generous. Not even friends or social workers countenance such heresy. Many will suggest to a wounded man that he talk to his priest or spend a little time in church; but, since novices frequently transfer their property to the religious orders they enter, they will not advise him to seek sanctuary in a monastery. They will, however, accept his power of attorney while he commits himself to a sanatorium.

These, then, are the three possible destinies that confront someone who has descended into the gap. He can return to Samsara, cauterized, branded and somewhat more grim and less spontaneous than he was before. Or, should all the therapeutic constraints fail and he fall back into his self-destructive ways, he can resume his career in the swamp until he succeeds in totally destroying himself.

Or, in a lucky, precious, lucid moment, he can discern the obvious and see that life is simply very painful and bitter and that after all his years of trying, he has completely failed to lessen the pain or sweeten the experience. This conclusion must be reached; and it does not matter how long a person takes to reach it, or how much he has suffered before he reaches it, or even how much crime he has committed in the course of reaching it. It matters only that he arrive at this understanding.

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