Death and life are equally illusional. Beyond this polarity lies the transcendental existence of oneness. When death is shunned and lives is valued, oneness persists as an instrument of change. When we hold on to the situations of our lives, not allowing them to transform with grace, we invite drastic change through death. Death is a purification rite that changes the old to make way for the new. Birth plays the same role for life in the spirit world: Seen from the perspective of one in the spirit world, birth appears the same as a death. When life and death are overcome, life's changes are effortlessly accomplished. The need for the drastic change of death that shocks the soul becomes obsolete.

Memory is inherent in the polarity of life and death—the one holds the memories of life in the other. This binds us to the past. What was excellent in the past is mediocre in the present. Harmonies played at the beginning of the symphony become discordant when played in another part of the melody. When dramatic deaths occur, especially the deaths of those who we regard as the shining lights of the world, the pathos seems all the greater. But it is often our attachment to holding on to them that makes the transition necessary. Death and birth can never be too late or too early. The scale only tips when one side reaches the exact measure to make it heavier. Death and life, the push and pull of existence, provide the necessary energy generated by movement to sustain a life imagined to be separate from its Source. When memory is dissolved and effortless knowing takes its place, the new expression of life gracefully eliminates what is not pertinent to the moment. Reality changes without our realizing when the memory of what went before is gone.