"She Is With Me"
Part 3: A Life of Retreat

The conventional orientation of people with a terminal illness is the search for a cure, as if cure will happen. I specifically Instruct My devotees not to indulge in this point of view. Of course, there is reason to look for treatments that are therapeutic, and such treatments are fine, but the conventional point of view is typically the "I am going to be cured" mentality, rather than the release of all negativity and surrendering in heart-Communion with Me.

My Instruction to Cathy was to handle her life-business, make arrangements for her daughter, relinquish her household arrangement with Jack, and enter into a life of retreat and intensive religious practice and renunciation. She has done this to some degree, but she has also been coloring her life with the search for the magical cure and social religiosity. She should obviously correct this. Her disease has reached the point where cure is unlikely, and it seems that she cannot be expected to live much longer. Therefore, she should handle her life-business, make arrangements for her family, and enter into a renunciate life in preparation for her transition.

She should release all negative thoughts. She should not try to go on with business as usual. It is fine to have the support and all the help of her friends and family and My devotees. Very possibly there may be remission of the disease and some continued life. Yet, in any case, her life should be a life of renunciation and meditation, the handling of life-business and relinquishing of life-bondage, so that she is prepared for this transition.

She should know that there is no death. The body dies, but the subtle components continue and these must be purified and transformed. Therefore, she must do the purification of the subtle and do the transcending work in the time that remains in her body. This means she should rightly maintain celibacy and live in a circumstance where she can maintain her days in meditation, puja [sacramental rite], study, chanting, practice "consideration", and discussion wherein life-business is handled and life-bonding is relinquished.

Through this right practice she must relinquish the exterior part, the anxiety and the fear of this transition, so that she is fully prepared for it when the time comes. She must let go of the exterior part without any disturbance or reluctance. She should neither be meditating on dying nor affirming dying. She should release all negative thoughts. If she continues to have some lifetime, fine, and if she dies, fine — that should be her point of view. In other words, her time should be spent in her practice as My devotee, and her practice must become profound instead of life-oriented and socially oriented. The more profoundly she purifies and transcends her own limits with her remaining time in the body, the more profound her transition will be whenever it finally comes.

Does she know the seriousness of her present condition? The facts of her illness should be presented to her before this Instruction of Mine is given to her, so that she is ready to receive it. This should be done with others around her—Jack, the doctors, the cultural servers, and Mate Moce. All these people should be aware of the service she requires now, and they should know what they must also change.

The same people must decide how to communicate to Sukey on the basis of her maturity. They should deal realistically with her, so that she can also be prepared. I assume adults are assuming full responsibility for her. She should have such support. Cathy will not be able to release her until she can see that Sukey is in a right and positive and happy situation and that she will be able to deal with Cathy's transition.

Cathy should not get into any morbid or negative disposition relative to all of this. She should be real, straightforward, profound, and not negative or morbid. Death is a real process, a process that must be really and seriously embraced. She must prepare for it and maximize auspicious signs, and so must the people who are related to her.

How anyone rightly prepares for death is an individual matter. In some cases, it may be better for the individual to remain more active, and in others not so. Yet even those who remain more active should assume the renunciate form of life and disposition, and increased meditation. It is fundamental to the religious process that everyone release life-bonds, and such release is fundamental to the process that precedes the transformation that is death.

There are three important things My devotees must do altogether in the Way of Adidam, and these same three things are to be maximized before the death transition: (1) handling life-business, (2) practicing renunciation, and (3) living in a way that maximizes heart-Communion with Me. This basic Instruction from Me should be given to all whose life may be brought to an end before too long.

Avatar Adi Da Samraj, October 25, 1994

EILEEN: Adi Da's Words were completely wonderful and Liberating. They were full of Compassion and Instruction for all of us, and we felt His Blessing Power and Transmission. Cathy cried, I cried, Jack cried. We knew the search for cure was over, and we had to do something entirely different. We knew we had to resort to Beloved Adi Da in spiritual Communion with Him.

A dramatic change was able to occur. We were no longer trying to beat death, but were cooperating with it. It was after these Notes that Cathy was able to let go of Sukey and Jack and allow the community to make plans for taking care of them. After that point, she was truly resorting to Beloved moment to moment, and as a result was Given the most incredible Blessing and Help from Him.

Beloved Adi Da's Notes were also read to Sukey. She received them very well, finally understanding what she had been feeling all year. Her life would change — indeed had already changed — and would never be the same. She cried, and expressed her anger at the situation, but was able to express clearly what she felt she needed and wanted in her life. I was impressed with her courage and maturity. This was liberating for her, and she seemed brighter afterwards.