“Doesn’t this sound a little pantheistic?
“Pantheism claims the cosmos is a whole made up of parts, and defines you as one part! Whereas, what we’re saying here is the ‘Self’, or the ‘Essential Self’ is the actual, and the cosmos is an illusion generated by your essential self!”
“What? Are you saying the cosmos is an illusion?”
“No, no… Please don’t get caught up on this now, we will talk much about this later. It’s too early for me to go into that, although I had previously mentioned it, but you didn’t understand…”
“But how can you say all of these tangible things that are physically present, that can be seen and touched, are all just an illusion?”
“Please don’t think about this now… In order to reduce your confusion I will give you a simple example for now, but as I said, it is still too early for this subject.
“Think about your dream world. Do you not think of your dreams as an illusion in comparison to this dimension of existence? But, when you dream, you hold and see things, even smell things, do you not? In most cases you do not even realize that you are dreaming – you think it is real. Only after you wake up you realize it was all a dream, right?
“So, then, can it not be possible, that one day you will wake up from this life to another dimension and realize it was all just an illusion, just like a dream?”
“Actually, it is quite logical. In fact, a great master is known to have said, ‘People are asleep and with death they will wake up!’”
“What do you think the words ‘with death they will wake up’ means? Do you think it is a reference made to the process of the physical body decaying in soil or something else?”
“That same great master has also said ‘die before death’ which I think partly answers your question. As in, die before your body decays away, before the biological death as we know it occurs!”
“Which means..?”
“It means there is another form of death different from the generally known simple physical death…”
“So, in this case, this other form of death, the one that is entirely different from the biological death of the body is the one that is referred to as ‘waking’ people up?”
“Yes…”
At this point, Gonul, who had been sitting quietly all along cut in:
“But if people can only awaken with this kind of a death, which has nothing to do with death as we’ve always known it to be, then wouldn’t this suggest that the majority of the deceased could have passed away without being awakened?”
“Of course!” Alph replied. “This clearly suggests that although many have died physically, because they failed to experience this other type of death, they have indeed not been awakened!”
“So does this mean they will never be able to awaken now that they are physically dead?” Jem asked.
“Hasn’t someone from amongst your kind brought an explanation for this? Haven’t you been taught that ‘all things will return to their origin’?”
“So everyone eventually will taste this death and awaken?”
“Jem, you are falling into conditioned thoughts again… Instead of asking me this, try to comprehend the essence of what I’m saying so you will find the answers within yourself, and while you advance intellectually, you will not lapse back into the conditioned pathways of thought!”
“You’re right, Alph. But, as it turns out, it is not easy to wipe away years and years of conditioning.”
“Yes I know… Tasting true death is not easy.
“Ah, the measures that were taken by your kind for this purpose! From withdrawing to the caves and the mountains for extended periods of time, to retreating to the deserts or solitary cells… Were these people crazy? Or was there a purpose behind all of this? They believed so intensely in their cause that even being labeled as insane did not stop them from their pursuit. And eventually they did reach their purpose.