Q: I just listened to the podcast with John Wheeler where you explained that you have cancer. I have a good
friend with cancer and he isn't handling it very well. I also have an
aunt who is emotionally suffering. It was so good to hear you share the
freedom you now have as a result of recognizing what you are. It really
is beautiful that you would open up and talk about this practical benefit, of
hearing you have cancer yet not suffering. How wonderful!! It's
good for listeners to hear that what we are talking about is not some
philosophy. That it really can allow a timeless sense of well-being even
in the face of what would otherwise be seen as a menacing appearance
(cancer)
C: Thanks for writing. A few thoughts arise …
1. All
that can be said about "cancer" in the light of Absolute Being has
been well said by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, most
potently in "Prior To Consciousness"
(ISBN 0893860247). In the experiencing of this
"here" there is no concern whatsoever, rather, it's all welcomed ...
so to say ... once the false identity has been annihilated, then no one is
"concerned" with one utterly insignificant bodymind energy-pattern
dissolving ... I am not, therefore where would "I" go?
2. We do
not know whether this body has cancer or not. A careful listening of that
podcast will reveal that what is shared is that it COULD be cancer. Either way
there is no "individual" here to give a fuck either way! There will
be more tests in March. Then there may be a verdict. No one cares.
"charliehayes" is no more. Bodies disintegrate, the Absolute is
untouched. And no one knows that!
3.
Regarding any suffering around "cancer", that suffering is
purely a matter of the conviction "I am the body". One whose "I
Am" is polluted with the body-concept as their identity will be very
afraid when a diagnosis like cancer comes; fear of death, and even more, fear
of pain. In "my" case, my reaction was laughter! That disease, if it
proves to be extant, is as good a way as any for this body to disintegrate! My
doc and I laugh about is (he has read my books, and knows what is real) ... I
tell him, okay let's manage any pain! Might as well! But really, the pointless
point is, THERE IS NO ONE, there never was "a person" to know or not
know, have pain or not, suffer or not suffer, live or die. No one has
cancer. The story is a pack of lies.
Listen to
Sri Nisargadatta: "If one has an illness or a pain, is there a form to
that? It is only a movement on consciousness. The knower of consciousness [the
Absolute, Parabrahman] cannot feel the pain, and it is only because
consciousness has identified itself with the body that the body feels pain.
When consciousness is not there, even if the body is cut, there is no pain. [As
when this body had bypass surgery, no consciousness, chest Skil-Sawed open,
legs cut open to harvest veins etc; NO consciousness, NO pain.]
“It is
not the body which feels pain. ... " !
I would
also say if there is a trace of "individual" identity left in you,
there will be a concern for "another". Your friend does not exist
apart from your own imagination! Erase that imagery and then there will be no
worries about the nonexistent "other". In my view that is the best
one can do; do not see "another" who is "suffering".
Cleanse thine own eye!
All this
is spontaneously happening; no entity exists anywhere to alter or modify the
functioning of The Absolute expressing as all
this! At the risk that it is "preaching to the choir"....HA!
All is
One. When both love and hate are absent, THIS is clear and no longer masked by
identity. There is only ... everything, nothing; Not Two!
Thanks
again for a good question; happy to clarify things.
