Once my master told me, “I can give you the maps, the teachings, the guidelines, the steps, but I cannot give you the eyes. For those who open themselves, there is transformation from age to youth, from misery to joy, from pain to peace, from dwelling on one’s mortal frame, to feeling one’s immortal life.”
Underlying this statement are the questions: are you eager to grow? Are you willing to give up pain and suffering? Do you long to open up your eyes and see clearly? If you have this quest for freedom, take this map in heart and mind. With patience and energy, enthusiasm and confidence, you can reach the peak.
When our mind does not see life as it is, it acts and reacts, according to its preconceived concepts of what should be. It then uses all its energy to make these concepts concrete. When concepts become concrete, then life becomes rigid, like a crystal. Whenever life becomes crystallized, there is no flow. Because of rigidity, we take stands. We go to the extent of fighting, in order to maintain our bias. As a result, we become either temporarily happy, or temporarily unhappy. If we watch ourselves at such times, we can see that we have lost pliability. In this way, we lose touch with the flow of life.
Craving arises in your unawareness. When you do not see an obejct as a thought crystal, but rather as a means to gratify your desire. Then you put all your energy into getting it. Sometimes you never get it, and sometimes you do. But in any case, the time comes when you have to leave it. In order to understand the nature of reality, we have to see what is real, without distorting or hiding it. We have to remove all the outside wrappings, which are created by our mind. The mind creates many beautiful phrases and mirages. It likes to hide reality with glossy coverings. Like the deer who runs toward a mirage of water when it is thirsty, we too are in a frenzy to get that which is merely an illusion.
If you want to feel the refreshing touch of a lake in summer, you have to remove your clothes — otherwise you will not get direct contact with the cool water. In the same way, if you want to enjoy the freshness of life, you must shed your coverings. Words, concepts, beliefs, crystallized thoughts, act as coverings. Puncture them. And you will see how hollow and insubstantial they are. Remove them, and you will see yourself.
Use your inner perception. See that the whole galaxy is moving in an unbroken rhythm. The same sun we think of as vanishing here is being seen across the globe as rising. And yet, it is the same sun. Lift yourself above the level of earth, to the height of the sun. You will always see the sun. Be conscious of that sun in you. There is changeless life in you.
Behind the continuous changes is the continuity of the changeless. Changes themselves indicate the ever-presence of the changeless.
As soon as a dry leaf drops, a new green leaf is already sprouting. If we are aware, we realize that behind the tiny new leaf, there is changeless, vibrant life.
Because of that life, one form is dropped, and another emerges. The old leaf has already gone on to a new form. One with more sensory equipment with which to perceive the world in a new, more sensitive way.
We begin to see that all life longs to move to higher realms of awareness. For that, change is inevitable. Change is what allows the changeless to reveal itself as ever-fresh. Without it, there is no growth, no renewal.
When we become concinved that change is for growth, and growth is for becoming aware of our inner divinity, we will be inspired to be free. Free from the tendency to cling to familiar things. We will become eager to unshackle ourselves from the fear of change.
When this truth sinks into our consciousness, it opens a new door. We stop seeing in a rigid way. The words ‘gone’, ‘disappear’, ‘vanish’, ‘death’ — are seen for what they are, as empty, or misleading words, based purely on our visual perception, not on our inner insight.
So what appears as death to one is birth to another. Both are two waves of the same ocean: life.
Changes are causing us to be aware of the changeless. And the changeless is causing all the changes to take place. Until we reach the best, we pass through good and better. All the forms change, in order to bring out a better and better form. Ultimately we become so refined as to be able to experience the radiance of our inner reality. The permanent bliss of our being.
So as you grow, cultivate this awareness, that in the sunset dawn is hidden. In the dawn, sunset is hidden. Appearing and disappearing are the play of life. Both are manifestations of the changeless.
As Bhagavan Mahavir said, “Just as a mighty mango tree is hidden within the stone of the mango; even so, divinity itself is hidden within you. Rest not until you uncover it. Keep patience on the path of truth.”