No war within, no war without
Fragment from the new book
The Seed of the Universe
“Achilles, though tried and fiercely tested, wrote beautiful tales of his apprenticeship with Chiron.” I offered, remembering the ancient text, ‘Achilleid’ written by Statius in the first century AD. I quoted. “He taught me to go with him through pathless deserts, dragging me on with mighty stride, to laugh at the sight of the wild beasts, to remain steadfast at the shattering of rocks and in rushing torrents as in the silence of the lonely forest… and when I was exhausted by roaming over the meads he praised me joyously and hoisted me upon his back…”
Chiron pushed Achilles to his limits and beyond using whatever means necessary to take him towards his own integrity. I was taken aback not only with the intimacy and affection the text revealed about that relationship, but with the Dreamer’s patience as He indulged me in this ostentatious display of memory.
I reflected on my own earliest years of friendship with Him. The kind of dizzy infatuation I had felt had worn off long ago as does the novelty of anything recently acquired. Choked out by habits and routine, my commitment to the Dreamer had been abandoned and remained trodden under my own feet like the seeds thrown by the wayside in the Biblical parable. My life had been like the seed which, although springing up quickly, was choked out by the surrounding thorns.
As the sun peaked in the sky, the Dreamer offered perhaps most profoundly important words for what would be the next phase of my life.
“The world is your projection… it is and does all that you are and do. Like a shadow that follows the being perfectly. The will to raise oneself towards the higher areas of Being – to undo the knots – must be fed every day… otherwise it freezes over and we see the reality outside of yourself becomes rigid, threatening, violent. The Game is no longer fun because you have forgotten.” He said cryptically.
I asked him how I could forget when at one time I had felt His words were written in my heart forever.
“Immortality is not the final goal,” He said.
“Immortality is not the final destination. Immortality is not a process of growth that makes you one day perfect….
If you try to improve yourself through some discipline and apply it to become immortal, you will never succeed.
In the end, even Chiron renounced his eternal suffering in favor of death, and Paris’ arrow did not miss Achille’s heel.
Immortality cannot happen in time.
Immortality is something you already are, and have but to remember!
