Most of us are in a constant state of tension about whether we are going to survive or not.

Every minute of driving on the freeway you wonder whether you are going to survive. Take an airplane and you wonder whether you are going to survive. You wonder where the money is going to come from to buy groceries tomorrow.

We are absolutely absorbed by this need to survive. We are tired of livin' and scared of dyin'.

Suppose you realize that it does not matter whether you survive or not. Do you really need to survive? Would you not feel much better if you gave up the need to survive? Would you not feel freer? Would you not have more energy available for glorious things?

Would you not be able to love others more if you were no longer concerned about whether you are going to survive?

We have been taught that we must go on, it is our duty. It is not.

All these ideas of the spiritual, the godly, and the dutiful are not the only way of being religious. There is an ineffable mystery that underlies ourselves and the world. It is the darkness from which the light shines.

When you recognize the integrity of the universe, and that death is as certain as birth, then you can relax and accept that this is the way it is. There is nothing else to do.