The Death Card: A Liz Lucas Cozy Mystery (15 page)

"No," said
the chairman.

"What can be
bigger than rape and murder?" an old man whined.

"Hurting the human
spirit with words or the lack of it by being silent," said the chairman.

A hush fell over the
room. Most went into a state of shock. Nobody moved. The chairman didn't utter
a word for several minutes. He wanted these words to sink deep into the soul of
every participant.

"Well… err… we've
all been guilty of it," a woman stammered.

"But we never
thought the consequences would be so harsh," a man said.

"That's why most
people never make money," said the chairman. "Or even if they do,
it's with a lot of blood, sweat and tears. The karmic load is so heavy that it
negates anything you do to move forward.

"What's the
solution?" asked an elderly lady.

"Something very
simple but very tricky. You can do it but you just won't do it," said the
chairman.

"Forgiveness.
You'll hold on to insults or insinuations for decades. Every time you refuse to
forgive you give birth to a block. Most of these blocks are deep within you,
remnants of a situation or altercation you faced a long time ago.

"I'm saying it
once more. Don't ever imprison your spirit on account of a guilty conscience
and if you do something wrong ask for forgiveness immediately. If the other
person refuses to forgive you, it's their problem. Ask for forgiveness from the
bottom of your heart and promise yourself you'll never do it again, and move on
in life.

“Looks like we have
much bigger issues to deal with,” said an elderly gentleman.

“Your thoughts are
diametrically opposite to ours,” opined one woman.

“Since sin doesn’t
exist, we can party a lot harder from now on,” said a young guy. Everyone
screamed: “Wooohooooooooooooooooo.”

“So what you're saying
is that we can commit a crime and get away with it?” asked an elderly
gentleman.

“Good question. Since
there’s no retribution, it’s a free ride, right?” asked one gal. 

“Well, it’s not that
simple,” said the chairman. “When you commit a crime your conscience gets
jolted. This jolt results in the formation of a negative imprint, which gets
added to your memory bank, which is already overflowing with billions of such
imprints.

"This imprint is
similar to the one made in molten metal. When you get hot under the collar,
these imprints register deep grooves in your psyche. Is it easy to erase them?
No. It takes a long time and until it exists you'll project the same reality
over and over again. You’re helpless.

"So prevention is
better than cure. Don't lose your bearings. Keep cool. You'll end up paying a
heavy karmic price if you don't.

“These imprints give
out a certain type of energy just like a magnet. This magnetic force attracts
you to people, places and things vibrating at the same energy level. You can
steal a piece of paper, a pen, a book or money from a bank; it’s all the same.

“So if you lie or
steal, no matter how small or how big, it gets registered, and this attracts
you to liars and thieves. They might be from the ghetto or they might be
wearing skirts and suits, but the undeniable fact is - ‘like attracts like’.

"Another way of
looking at it is - your conscience is the software and your memory is the
database.
When "an act" involves an emotion
then the result of
that act gets added to the database. The bigger the database the harder life
gets. In other words, keep your emotions in check and travel light. You'll go
fast and you'll go far and you'll be happy.  

“So it's back again to
the memory and its back again to the most important saying of all time – empty
yourself of your memories, for the reason your life is the same as your parents
or differs very marginally is because
the same memory patterns bring forth
the same experiences
.”

“So what you're telling
us is that there’s no entity sittin' in heaven doling out bouquets and
brickbats?” clarified an old man.

“That’s right. You're
responsible for every bouquet and every abuse hurled at you,” said the
chairman.

“I’ve been terrorized
into submission by my folks who keep telling me that I’ll end up in hell if I
sin,” said a young gal, her cheeks pink with guilt.

"They're right on
one account," said the chairman. "Don't do anything that might hurt
others.

“So to recap, you are
bleeding precious energy because you daydream, blame, complain and criticize,
because of infatuation, because you are weighed down by useless memories,
because of sin and guilt (if not a lot then a little). Sin is a figment of your
imagination that never had anything to stand on but survived for so long
because
you energized it with fear
that sprouted from your inner being
,” said
the chairman.

"Women are good
when it comes to all of this. Their bullshit detector is far better than a
man's. They've always been the protector whereas man has always been the
provider. You put bullshit on a man's plate, he'll eat it and then say - Well,
that tasted kinda funny.

Everyone burst out
laughing.

"Learn from women,
you'll prosper tremendously," said the chairman

*****

Once, three beautiful
birds landed on the front lawn of a house. The lady of the house was busy with
her daily chores when she nonchalantly looked up and saw these heavenly
creatures. She went up to them and almost let out a shriek when the first bird
said: “My name is Love.”

The second bird said:
“My name is Success,” and the third bird said: “My name is Wealth.”

The lady could scarcely
believe her good fortune. She invited all of them in, but Love told her, that
she could only choose one of them.

She went running in and
called her husband. Soon, there was an animated discussion, about which bird
was to be let in. The fight was for Success and Wealth, neither wanted Love.

A little while later,
their eight year old daughter came out and saw the birds. Since her parents
were unable to come to a decision, they asked her to choose. The little girl
didn’t know what Success or Wealth meant, so she chose Love.

As soon as Love flew
into the house, Success and Wealth too flew into the house. This left the
parents perplexed. Love had conveniently forgotten to mention, that if it was
chosen, then Success and Wealth had no option but to follow it, wherever it
went.

*****

CHAPTER
7

Nothing
can Kill You!

The chairman
looked over at the paper plane made of money that still lay unclaimed on the
floor. No one dared pick it up. Maybe they were afraid of being labelled as greedy.
Just when the chairman was going to reach down for it, the young gal retrieved
it for him. He thanked her as he pocketed the money.

“So, how many of
you are afraid of death?” asked the chairman.

All of them
raised their hands.

“Why?” asked the
chairman.

“It's game over
once we’re dead, ain’t no fun in that,” said one man.

“Here’s a
scientific fact that science does not know yet: you are immortal,
you will
never die or in other words - nothing can kill you, because
you are the
essence
,” said the chairman.

“Howz that
possible?” asked an elderly gentleman, who flashed a toothless grin.

*****

A day is
equivalent to a lifetime enveloped in 24 hours. A day and a lifetime are like
two gears, made of the same material, have teeth, and rotate in a circular
fashion. They differ in size -
not in function
. Hence, you are born
every day.

When you sleep,
you don't sleep, your body sleeps. When you die, you don't die, your body dies.
The sun doesn't rise in the east and set in the west. The sun always is just as
pure awareness always is. Don't let the rising and setting blindside you. Just
like the sun - You are Pure Awareness and Awareness always Is. Don't let small
things like birth and death fool you!

*****

"Once you
were a baby, is that baby still around?" asked the chairman.

"No,"
said the elderly gentleman.

"Are you
still here?" asked the chairman.

"Damn right
I am," he replied, as everyone burst out laughing.

"Once you
were a teenager, is that teenager still around? Once you were a young man, is
that young man still around? Once you were a middle aged man, is that middle
aged man still around?" asked the chairman. "None of them are around,
but you're still here, aren't you?"

"Yeah,"
said the elderly gentleman.

"So you
take up all these forms that are eventually discarded, but the "you"
still remains, this ever-present awareness that is witness to everything that
is happening," said the chairman.

"The
witness always was, is and always will be."

“So why are we
not aware of this fact?” asked the senior gentleman.

“You hit the
nail on the head," said the chairman. "It’s all ‘bout awareness. All
of you sleep with your eyes wide open during the day so there’s ‘very little to
no awareness’ even when you are awake. With such low levels of awareness there
is very little difference between you and an animal.

“This imaginary
fear of death keeps you rooted to the same spot, every decision you take is
centered around your safety, your security. You might not be aware of it, but
deep down its playing on your ignorance (that you are unaware of your
immortality) all the time.

“When you die
you don’t die, it's not game over; it's just break-time. Tired of this
existence, tired of playing the game of life, you take a breather and then get
back on court with renewed energy,” said the chairman.

“Death is a
figment of your imagination. The fear of death sucks out enormous amounts of
energy from you on a daily basis. This stunts your growth and you live life
half-dead. Many diseases and bodily pain in life are on account of this fear
manifesting itself in myriad forms.

“You walk around
thinking that someone or something will harm you or your family; the funny
thing is – those around you also walk around thinking that you’ll stick it into
them at any time.

“If you want to
tattoo one thing then let it be this –
Death is the ultimate illusion
,”
said the chairman. “It’s back to the concepts of ‘Empty yourself of your
memories, your past conditionings and bring down this wall of resistance that
has come up on account of your memories.

“When you try to
reason, you are standing on the foundation of your memories, for without the
support of your memories you cannot reason, so such a method of learning is
faulty. In Latin -
to educate means to draw from within, not to shove from
outside
.  Eternal truths bubble up from deep within and point you in the
right direction,” said the chairman.

“These eternal
truths are diametrically opposite to the memories you carry with you, for the
simple reason that your memories are formed with the help of the five senses.
Your senses can decode a very limited portion of the frequency/energy spectrum
and are inadequate to say the least.

“If
you blow a dog whistle, the dog can hear it, but you can’t,” said the chairman.
“That’s how unreliable your ears are. An x-ray machine can see through objects,
but your eyes can’t, that’s how unreliable your eyes are.

“So educate
yourself from the 'inside out' not from the 'outside in',” said the chairman.  

“This is deep
shit if you ask me,” said one man, convinced but still a little tentative.

“Yeah, we take
ourselves way too seriously,” said another, grinning mischievously.

“We’re beginning
to understand how much time, energy and resources we waste fearing death, when
we could instead enjoy life and live life in the here and now,” said an elderly
lady.

"When a
person is about to be hanged to death, when a soldier begins running towards
death in the battlefield, when someone with unrequited love and crushed heart
finally takes that first step (after all those years of self-imposed
incarceration), instead of fear, there is a smile on the face," said the
chairman.