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What Is Disease? By
Peter Mandel.
"If we look at today's world as a whole, the idea of disease,
and almost incurable disease,
arises automatically. The root of disease, the outside, in the
world always has its analogy, its cause, on the inside. For man, this means
it is he who is making the world sick, because he himself is sick. As with
all things, disease is a reflection of the inner, and tries, through the
principle of resonance, to synchronize or program everything to the same
state of being. Disease is opposite to health. Health is usually
associated with joy, happiness and a pain-free life; with having ideas and
being able to live them out; with being active in being able to laugh; with
being able to perceive and recognize things that others cannot or choose not
to see.
Disease means frustration, pain, and the paralysis of life. It is the
opposite of happiness and beauty; it is darkness and death. It is thought
that the one is dependent on the other, that if there were no health, we
would not know what disease is, and vice versa. However, there is a
decisive flaw in our thinking -- disease always is only the upside down
unreality of life, manifest.
Let us compare a man's life with a pen, an enclosure into which he is born
and in which he ends his days. Although the pens of many individual lives
border on each other, as in the honeycomb, a man has to accept that he is
limited to his own. He has to live in it; he can live only in it . While
he explores his own territory, he has many possibilities; he can get to know
and enjoy the beauty that surrounds him. He can wander through his own life
with open eyes, recognizing and taking note as well as the positive, of
marshlands and ways that are impassible. However, he can also close his
eyes and, by accident, step into a puddle. And instead of reacting and
leaving this uncomfortable place immediately, he may remain there and
complain about having cold feet, which, in the course of time, will grow
colder and colder. Gradually from bottom to top, the wet, cold feet will
dominate his thoughts and feelings.
As time passes, the memory of the beauties of his own pen will fade. He
will neither see nor recognize them any more. His whole existence will be
reduced to these wet and cold feet. He is imprisoned and blocked; he is
sick. Let us now compare this picture with the term "disease."
Long before we recognize it, disease as such has already begun. It started
at a time when we were still experiencing light and beauty. Then suddenly,
in our life, we stepped into cold water, into a puddle. And instead of
recognizing the difference and stepping out of it, we wonder why it has to
be us, of all people, who are the victims, who have to experience something
so awful! And the longer we mull over it, the more the idea of happiness
and beauty recedes into the background. We
become accustomed to the present
feeling, complain about the hardship we're experiencing and forget
completely what existed before. We get sick --- or rather, the body, as the
container of our being, gets sick. Everything we are then becomes focused
on the body. The river of time stand still, and the blockage and the
pressure grows steadily.
In terms of our analogy, our feet grow colder and colder until one day, they
fall off.
Remember, the individual pen is only one among others. All are structured
in the same way, even though, fundamentally, there are differences.
We may be lucky, and some may call to us from the adjoining pen and say:
"Neighbor, you seem to have cold and wet feet.”
Answer: "Oh, yes,” and we go on to describe in detail all the attributes
of wet and cold feet. Or on the other hand, our neighbor may tell us about
the beauty of the environment that surrounds us. We, however, are trapped
in our cold, wet puddle.
Our neighbor may also provide us with the impetus to overcome this
situation. He may say, “Take a step forward.” This step can often mean
effort, only because we cannot understand that this step forward might help
rid us of our cold and wet feet. But if we try, if we make a firm
resolution, then we will be able to exchange the wet dark marsh for the
sunny side of life. And then, again, we will be able to see the beauty of
our own surroundings. At first our feet will still be wet and cold. But
soon, we will feel them getting warmer, and slowly we can start enjoying our
rediscovered the surroundings. And soon it is going to be dry and warm.
Soon the beauty around as will make us forget the wet, the cold and the
dark.
Since our pens contain many such puddles, it may happen, of course, that we
get cold feet again and again. Then we will see if we have learned our
lesson, and that is, at the first encounter with a cold, to set out in
another direction in search of the warmth and the light. This is how we
prevent wet and cold feet and, therefore, sickness. Seen in this way,
disease is a walking on the wrong path, on one that has been taken only
because the right path could not be recognized. So, man has three
possibilities for traveling his allotted time. Let us imagine, between
birth and death, that life takes place within an isosceles triangle. The
possibility man is given for traveling this space is indicated by the line
between the base (birth) and the apex (death). Starting one's life path
from point A, there are three different ways to reach to life’s melting
point. First, a person moves directly from A to B. Secondly, he wanders
from his life's path again and again, but never loses contact with his
program or way, which is predetermined. Thirdly, a person leaves the
direct root
completely, blunders around, loses his
lifeline, and with
this, his life's meaning. After some time he will reach point B. This
person will not find an answer to the sum total of his life, nor a
resolution to his life's program. Again and again he has made contact with
his life’s progress; however, he could never follow it directly. This means
he keeps committing the same mistakes and therefore has to deal with a
consequence again and again. And if he does not become "insightful," if he
does not recognize and accept the cause of recurring disturbances, he will
destroy himself.
Let us suppose life is a classroom. We are the pupils and must learn in
order to move on to the next class. In between, there are examinations to
reveal what we have or have not understood. These examinations show us what
we still need to understand. The final examination -- comparable to point B
on our life-triangle -- will then reveal whether we have learned the lesson
of our class or whether we will have to repeat it again. According to this
analogy, this means we will be asked, at the end of our life on Earth, about
the significance of our past experiences. Will we be satisfied with the
essence of what we see, or will we have to admit that everything went wrong?
The final examination is death. Here at the melting point of life, we will
be given the marks we deserve, and whatever remains undone will be noted
down.
We who reincarnate again and again, on our return to another time and
perhaps another place, must first complete, learn and understand what we
have not dealt with, before we are allowed and able to proceed on the road
toward the highest principle, toward God.
Even though many people do not yet know what to do with this philosophy of
life, more and more people of all religions, in the meantime, become aware
that the principle of learning and developing from life to life makes
sense.
No one who sets out a path in search of the higher is ever without
assistance. All he needs to do is recognize and accept the help that is
available to him. Never before, in the recent evolution of man, have so
many indications and possibilities been available, never has there been as
much help and support as today.
But this also has two sides; this also carries the quality of an
examination. If man, who has started on this path with an innocent heart,
falls back into old patterns of behavior -- perhaps saying, “Doctor, is it
your fault that I am sick" -- then he is distracted from his desired goal
and simply marks time.
There is only one single road toward well being, one's own path. Each human
being has to pass his own examinations; he has to travel through his own
territory, through his own pen, with all its light and dark aspects. If he
lets himself become diverted by the outside, then he will not reach the goal
of his class. And becoming diverted means becoming ill.
Disease can only be defined as an impulse for change, an impulse which
signals the person, "Analyze yourself and your surroundings. Try to
discover and remove the reasons for this stagnation. Gain insights into the
past in order to understand and resolve the present and future."
At this point, however, the biggest self-deception automatically happens,
and that is, “I cannot!” But everything we cannot can be learned, as long
as we really want to.
Literature is full of hints and suggestions as to how to live and to act in
order to reach certain goals. But this often leads to confusion, because
authors suggest many different solutions for any one theme. Each of them is
dogmatic, considering his thoughts to be the only right and valid ones. This
is how they create dependence in their followers, preventing people from
traveling their paths on their own.
Real help is offering the possibility of accompanying the person, in his
frustration and trouble, part of the way -- and trying to free him from his
obstacles and show him new directions, yet allowing him to decide himself
which direction he wants to take.
All teachings that are dogmatic and claim to be absolute are wrong and
dangerous. Truth remains truth. And the absolute truth remains with God.
My truth may be a lie for someone else, and his truth - that he defends as I
defend my own - may not be right for me."
---Peter Mandel
From his Book: "Esogetics The Sense and Nonsense of Sickness
and Pain"
"We who are
imprisoned in matter have to bring out our "I" out of matter and darkness
and into the light. On the level of the spiritual world we humans, in our
wholeness are light beings. We must and always will develop toward the
Absolute Light which we call God. In this process we are
accompanied
by light on the outside, and if we allow it, by the light on the inside."
---Peter
Mandel
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