Death comes in many forms - a relationship, physical body, friendship, but it will come. This is a world of duality and relationship. The perfect yin-yang expressing the measurement of one against the other while each containing the seed of the other - all within the whole.

Twelve years ago I was speaking with my friend Miss Swiss on the phone discussing my decision to end the relationship with a spiritual teacher. I had learned much from him, but his ongoing dalliance with one of my students, one I had cautioned him about, meant that it was time for me to move on.

Perhaps Ron's imperfection made him a good teacher for me. One didn't have to wait until they were perfect to obtain the mystical states. Yet his weakness in this area went against everything I stood for -and I watched him lie to some of his students about why he was angry about my confronting him. He was hiding his indiscretions.

I taped that conversation that fateful night with my friend, but have as yet been unable to listen to it. Twelve years and I finally understand what all unfolded. I meditated as I went to sleep that night. Ron was teaching in Montreat and I could feel his energy. There were previous times I had meditated and found myself looking through his eyes at the hills below his second story bedroom. We connected, communicated, and touched even if we were a thousand miles apart. We spent a couple of hours discussing the future of the Fifth Wave, a mystical one, and setting his detachment from his former but incapable group into play.

The last time I had been present at his intensives, he was sick, his heart failing, and he looked at me. I had been sending him energy for over two years now to help keep him alive. There were times when he couldn't withstand the chest pains and he would send them to me temporarily so he could get a moment of relief. But this time had been different.

In a flash, I was in his body and teaching the group in Montreat. He always told me they would never forget me, but some of them would not know it until death. My words, my energy, speaking through another body while I was sitting attentively on the couch. He glanced at me from time to time knowing the amount of energy it was taking to sustain him. However, I had found my connection to the Source long ago and felt fine. I glanced at one of his advanced students to see if she noticed the difference, but there was no indication of it. I remembered this and noted how far my expectation of normal had become.

Now, on this shared communication 12 years ago in the dream space, our conversation came to its natural closure, he asked me to cut the cord that had sustained his body past its natural death. Through the clarity of the earlier conversation with Miss Swiss I was ready to do so.

Grabbing the magical knife I keep under my mattress and in full awareness, I cut the cord.

Ron's astral (non-physical) presence at my bedside woke me early that next morning - my alarm clock had been ringing loudly for over 15 minutes without notice. He said he had to talk to me.

"LOOK...I don't have time to talk to you right now. I just started this job and if I don't get moving I will be late."

I dressed rapidly, drove through the morning traffic terrified that I would be late. It was a gorgeous autumn morning as I pulled into the parking lot at the university. There was a quarter mile walk, but if I walked fast I would arrive before my boss did. I locked my car, took a breath, and started through the small patch of woods. I noted the red tailed hawk watching my progress along the narrow trail.

"Do you have time to talk to me NOW?" Ron asked inside my head.

Answering affirmatively, he proceeded to extract three promises from me. For any one who knows me well, it is hard to get me to promise something, because if I commit, I will go to extremes to honor it. I remember that walk well and the exact place outside the University Bookstore where he asked me this question -

"What will it take for you to teach full-time?"

I didn't answer him at first, but he was insistent. Finally, I relented and replied, "A new car, a new mouth, and a chunk of change."

"Done." In a flash he was gone.

"Hey, how come I can hear you so much more clearly this morning?" But there was no answer.

Updates

I arrived in my office and unpacked my desk. My boss hadn't arrived. I was fine. I checked and printed out his email and began to order my priorities when the phone rang:

 

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