________________
with their pseudo-appreciation. For the ego is not self-sufficient, it is a parasite, it demands constant attention and appreciation.
The celebrated scientist, Dr. Einstein, was once so engrossed in his search for truth that he forgot to shave for a month and a half. When his attention was drawn to it he remarked that the thing on which he had focussed all his attention was so all-absorbing that he could not afford to divert his attention to anything else. This is what is meant by the exclusion of everything extraneous. Without the exclusion or submerging of the ego a genuine act of creation is impossible.
Death holds no terror for the man who has reached out of his ego, for he has reached that stage where he no longer says, “I AM”, but rather says, “i am HE”. But to reach this latter stage he must first pass through the stage of “I am not”.
Such a man is never torn by tensions. With the elimination of this disease, his ego, his entire attitude is changed. He will face obstacles courageously. Even if he fails in his work, he will not be dejected. Success and failure are often governed by fate, but to fight
38
