If we are to understand the wisdom impressed upon our hearts and minds, these coats of skin must fall away. It is our life on earth and our karma that bring about the challenges necessary to drop these impediments. Perhaps plagues throughout history have assisted us all in greater and more mysterious ways than we know. Today we know more about cancer than we did. With AIDS in America it is worse.
Social stigma turns self-perceived virtues into the vices of separateness and condemnation.
Here is the test, provided by nature, to those who are not themselves afflicted, to realize unconditional love and compassion as taught worldwide by the teachers and elder brothers of humankind. Few experiences, met with greatness of heart, could be more truly initiatory into the divine wisdom of the gods. In the life of one willing to move ahead rather than look back with regret, to examine impartially his or her strengths and weaknesses under these conditions, the true self may, if only in small part, be gradually revealed and shared. They undergo the deepest challenges, exploring the meaning of life and the sacredness of the moment. If they travel far enough, they learn to forgive the ignorance and brutality of others, thus revealing the makings of a warrior of compassion.