XVII

THE MYSTERY OF love is greater than the mystery of death, for death is simple and death is pure. For life in the present there is no death. Death is not an event in life. It is not a fact in the world. Death is everywhere and it lies within every person. It is inexorable, merely capable of being postponed or deferred, and with it, as well the thought of it, it has hurt well as it has healed. But it is not a fact.
DEATH BORDERS UPON our birth, and our cradle stands in the grave. Our birth is nothing but our death begun, and without an understanding of myth or religion, without an understanding of the relationship between destruction and creation, death and rebirth, the individual suffers the mysteries of life as meaningless mayhem alone.