EXPERIENCES THE SOUL MUST GO THROUGH

 
Your point about cancer and illness interested me — it is of course the old point of our lack of understanding that the enlightened ones have. We always see it from the material point of view, and they (experiencing creation as illusion) must act for the spiritual good. It's far from the Divine Plan to have no illness of the body — after all it is one of the main mediums of experiencing pain which is the opposite of pleasure. Duality (however illusory) expresses itself in dual experiences, and misery is as much in the Divine Plan as is so-called happiness. They are both experiences the soul must go through some time or another.

Another way I look at it is this: even with all the misery there is, it is so difficult to 'turn away' from the world — well-nigh impossible to be disgusted sufficiently to turn to God alone. Just imagine if everything were fine and serene, no illness, no misery, we'd stick to our ignorance like leaches, and such a stagnant way would hardly serve the development of the ever-awakening soul!

I remember someone remarking, "Why if there are spiritual masters in India don't they do something about the backwardness and disease of the country?" Just as though they were a crowd of missionaries, or a society for the prevention of disease and dirt! I replied that although they did a sweeping job it was not on germs, but on our ignorance, and even if they do not completely wipe it out, at least they jolt us enough from our self-satiated complacency of accepting our illusory existence as the only and all.