Being Zusha
Religion and death go together. In fact, if it were not for death, people might not have invented religion. That’s because religion is a way we humans make meaning out of the raw facts of our existence, and death is the rawest fact of all.
Lying on his deathbed, Rabbi Zusha of Hanipol reportedly said, “Our sages command us to be as great as Moses, yet Torah tells us no one can be as great as Moses [Deuteronomy 34:10]. If, when I die, God asks me, ‘Why were you not like Moses?’ I know what to say. But this is not God’s question. God’s question is ‘Why were you not yourself?’ And to this I will have nothing to say.”
Being yourself means being the unique manifesting of Reality you already are instead of conforming to the ideal set for you by someone else.
If, when I die, I have the opportunity to choose my fate, I would choose this: not to be dead.
RR
Of course, this does allow for sociopaths and psychopaths, and that is the challenging part of Reality: it makes room for everything. Jeffrey Dahmer is no less God than Mother Teresa. It’s just that when he says he’d like to have you over for dinner, you should decline the offer.