WHILE AT ONE PLACE CHRIST ASKS HIS DISCIPLES TO CARRY THEIR CROSS EVERY DAY, AT ANOTHER HE BIDS THEM TO CELEBRATE HIS PRESENCE AS THAT OF A BRIDEGROOM. WHY THIS CONTRADICTION?
There is none. It only appears to be a contradiction.
Every moment one has to remember death, because any moment it is possible. That is the meaning of'to carry the cross every day' -- that you should not forget death. Once you forget death you relapse into unconsciousness. If you remember death you remain alert, awake.
But when we say'remember death', we don't mean that you should become oppressed by the idea, obsessed by the idea. We don't mean that you should create a deep fear about death and tremble continuously. That will be morbidity, that will be perversion.
In relationship to death, there are two types of perverted people. One: those who have completely forgotten, or try to forget, that death is. They try to avoid it. They would not even like to talk about death. If you start talking with them about death they will think that you are uncivilized. unmannerly. They will avoid the very topic. They will not go to the cemetery. That's why cemeteries are built outside of the town. Nobody comes across them accidentally. Only when one has to come to the cemetery does one come. Otherwise it can be avoided.
Death is a taboo subject, more tabooed than sex. Nobody talks about it... and everybody knows it is coming. Humanity lives in a great deception. This is one morbidity.
Then there is another morbidity. You can move to the other extreme and you can become obsessed with death. You can constantly tremble and you can lie awake at night, because who knows? -- you may not get up in the morning. You cannot eat well, because how can you eat when death is coming? You cannot love, because how can you love anybody when everybody is going to die? That, too, is morbid; that, too, is perversion.
Jesus says, "Carry your cross every day." He says to remember death... and still let every moment be a celebration of life. Death is coming: that is all the more deep a reason to celebrate. Because who knows? -- this may be the last moment.
This moment of life is not to be destroyed by the fear of death, but AGAINST death, in contrast to death, this moment has to be celebrated. It has to be celebrated even more deeply, because who knows? -- the next moment we may not be here. While the bridegroom is here, celebrate it.
The parable of the bridegroom can have a very inner meaning. Within you, your body is the body of death and your consciousness is life, the source of life. You are both. Your body is going to die: it belongs to the earth -- dust unto dust. It will have to go, it will return to its source.
You belong to the sky, you belong to God -- your consciousness is separate from your body. This is the meaning of Jesus on the cross. Everybody is on the cross because consciousness lives in the body and the body is death.
If you understand, you know that everybody is on the cross. But that should not become a pessimism. On the contrary, that should be all the more reason to celebrate. The bridegroom is within you and the body is the chamber of the bridegroom. Celebrate it!
Jesus is not contradictory; Jesus is absolutely simple. The contradiction is in life itself: that life exists through death and death exists through life. Life itself is the paradox. But that is the beauty also. All beauty exists in contrast and all of life exists as a tension between opposites. It is a bridge built on two banks: death and life.
Celebrate every moment because this may be the last moment. But while celebrating, don't forget that death is coming. Remember it.
Remembering should not become an obsession; remembrance should become a celebration. Carry the cross but carry it dancing; carry the cross but carry it singing; carry the cross but carry it with a deep celebration within. Then you live both: you live life, you live death. And you live both of them deeply and intensely. When you can live both intensely, they become one. Then you know that life and death are two aspects of the same thing, of the same energy. Life is expression, manifestation. Death is a returning.
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