Iliana, Tony and Enlightenment

“Boo!”

Sitting on Iliana’s memorial bench in Holy Hope Cemetery, lost in decades-old memories, I was startled by a woman’s voice behind me.

I admit, I was spooked; no pun intended. I jumped straight up and whipped around and there she was!

“Iliana, what are you doing here? You’re supposed to be dead!”

“Well, that’s kind of rude! And guess what; I’m not dead…to you,” was her rather snotty reply.

To get things straight, Iliana died two months ago. Localized social media, print news, her business news posting and website all proclaimed her greatness, the authors’ personal sorrow and tributes and their undying regret for her passing.

I, on the other hand, knew nothing about her passing until a random AI search for something else keyed her name. That reminded me of our long-past friendship, and I Googled her name and hometown. That’s how I learned about her demise.

After a bit more Googling, I found her obituary, her burial date and location and her survivors. I didn’t know any of them. Good God, I hadn’t seen that woman in over half a century. I didn’t even recognize her twenty-year-old obituary photo at first. Reading the facts of her life and early years, I was convinced this was my dear friend from long ago.

Now, here she was, making me almost jump out of my skin in the middle of the cemetery.

“So, what are you doing here? And why are you talking with me?” I queried.

“Well, if you’ll remember correctly, you’re the one who lamented not getting to tell me hello or anything else before I, well, you know,” was her response. “So, I’m not dead to you.”

She went on, “I’m not the only one not dead to you. Your buddy from way back then when we were all friends, Tony, is here, too. He’s parked way over there, but when I passed through the Veil you talk about, he met me.

“By the way, he told me about that night he appeared in your pickup and told you your mission. He tells a pretty funny story!”

I stood up for myself with, “Wait a minute, that wasn’t funny. I was doing about eighty miles per hour in the dark on I-10 east of El Paso. And he just popped in through the windshield and into the passenger seat. That wasn’t fair and it wasn’t funny. I could’ve wrecked,” I pointed out.

“But you didn’t wreck. In fact, you’re still alive, and you’re still following up on his guidance despite arguing with him about how ‘I don’t want to do that; it’s too hard.’” She affected a whiny petulant voice for that last part just to mock me.

She continued, “You carried on for years about how you wanted to ‘touch the Magick of the Universe’ and be more than what people saw you as. You wanted to be a holy man and work miracles. Tony set you on a path to make all that happen.

“Now, here we are,” she continued. “You’ve made progress and now you decide it’s not for you? What’s the matter with you? Decades of searching, teetering on the brink of enlightenment and you don’t want it anymore? You thought it was all fun and glory with no responsibility?

“Tony! Tony, are you close?” she shouted.

“Yup, yup, I’m here,” he said as he materialized standing next to her. “Do you mind if I sit on your nice bench?”

“Not at all; have a seat,” she replied. “You can sit if you want, Joe, and you don’t mind sitting next to a dead guy.”

“No, I’ll stand. I’m a little upset with all this. Why don’t you sit down next to Tony?”

Let’s make this clear. I’m talking with two people I know are dead and now they are sitting on a bench in a cemetery with me standing facing them carrying on a conversation.

“Are you sure your relatives won’t mind a stranger sitting on your bench?” Tony queried.

“No, they won’t mind. You’re a guest of mine. Besides, if they show up, all they’ll see is this lunatic talking to a marble bench. They’ll think he’s homeless and will report him to the cemetery keepers. And the cemetery keepers will come and tell him to leave, and you and I will have another story to tell about him and laugh about,” she went on.

I couldn’t take it. “Wait a minute, you guys. I can’t be the butt of your jokes all the time, you know. It’s not right.”

Tony spoke, “To paraphrase that great Western actor just before he shot the bad guy, “Right ain’t got nothin’ to do with it.’ And we can’t help it if you’re funny.”

He continued, “You’ve been searching for positive energy, the universal magick, whatever you call it at the moment. The truth is, it’s all that stuff and more. The problem for you is, you’ve always thought you could do all this grand and glorious stuff without considering there are extreme responsibilities with these abilities, these gifts.

“All those years ago, I told you the spiritual side of life was bearing down on you. And you didn’t want it. And it came anyway. And you wanted more. And you discovered it; you earned it.

“You have the power to heal people and animals of illness and some injuries. You influence the weather; you call for guidance to find stuff including directions to restaurants you didn't know you wanted and you get it. You see auras and receive prompts to contact others in need.

“You’ve sought more all these years. Now it’s time to pay the piper and move on. Iliana and I are here to guide you, cajole you, bully you, whatever it takes, to get you to your next phase.

“We are your version of the old-style masters; you will accept our teachings. Unlike the old-style masters who used their bamboo staffs to re-direct their students, we’ll use our energy, our essence.”

Iliana spoke, “We love you and we still have our rough sense of humor that the three of us had all those years ago. As you’ve learned in the classes you teach, humor helps get the point across and helps students stay focused.”

She continued, “Enlightenment. You wanted it for years; now you’ve decided that that is too hard, too demanding. However, you got everything else and you know there’s more.

“But you’re afraid you’ll lose your individuality, your ability to sin when you want to do something other than be a holy man. You’re nuttier than a fruitcake, kid, if you think it’s all about you.

“It's not all about you. In fact, it's not about you at all. You've been pining for this esoteric universal cosmic enlightenment for as long as Tony and I have known you.

“You were given dessert before you even cooked the meal. No wonder you can't quit fluttering around in your own mind trying to find, then avoid, enlightenment. You think it's too much responsibility? That's the nature of the universe, Bucko!”

Tony jumped in with, “Enlightenment is not only a responsibility. It also brings everything else you know together. It will jump-start the rest of your life.

“You’ve always wanted more: more kindness, more patience, more ability. All that goes with enlightenment. It’s time.

“Take up your mantle, accept it; it’s yours. We will be there with you. Drive on.”

Iliana continued, “It’s okay. Enlightenment is not as restrictive as you imagine. Remember, you still have free will….”