Sandy Beach tells the story best about dropping the rock. A man is drowning from holding on to this heavy weight, just when he is ready to give up hope, he looks up at the shore and sees all these people dancing and laughing, wow he says... looks really good up there, yeah it is, they reply.. drop the rock and come on out of the water.
Drop the rock he thinks, impossible, this is my rock, it is vital to me, my whole world, it's all i have, what i am... so he goes on drowning.. later he looks up again, wow it looks really good up there... drop the rock they yell at him... he can't.. time goes by... something happens, by accident he drops the rock and climbs out..
he wonders later...What the hell was i thinking hanging on to that rock for so long..
In this human drama/comedy, most of us are hanging on desperately to some very small ideas of who and what we are. Loaded down with our concepts and ideas of the image we think we are. I'm this, i'm that, i'm this description... well it's simply not true.. that's like saying all you need to make cookies is flour. It is our responsibility to remember who we are, to recognize our fundamental nature.
If you want to make chocolate chip cookies, you follow the recipe, if you leave out the flour or the chocolate chips or the baking soda, it's not gonna be chocolate chip cookies.
Recognizing our true identity is like that, we need BOTH vital ingredients, we need to clearly see our basic state as well as the expression that appears in this instant.
1. recognition of the vast open intelligence, our true beneficial nature AND
2. whatever or whoever is appearing in this moment, all that appears, all thoughts, feelings, sensations and experiences just as they are. It is in the combining of these two: essence and appearance, substance and form, that the full potential beneficial nature of love is fully expressed.
I listened today to someone talking about their challenge in dealing with a friend who was sick, depressed, needy, draining, demanding, on and on.... they want to help, feel guilt when they don't, but are so challenged to not get sucked into this very draining encounter... well that's a description for sure... what's actually true about that? without seeing the true identity, open intelligence, it's like being blind. To only see the description and not the fundamental nature, the essence, the truth about a person, situation, thought, feeling, etc.. is to not see it clearly.
It's like making cookies with only flour and water, they'll taste really bad. Likewise to only see truth, essence, but not the appearance, to not have compassion and love for people and their challenges can result in a cold hearted distant removed experience that can leave people thinking that if the appearance is not really real, then nothing matters and they can behave anyway they like without morals or ethics. equally blind.
Our full expression of our beneficial nature is the recipe of these 2 ingredients, we only get chocolate chip cookies, or see clearly when we see both the truth, the unmanifest, the open intelligence, the infinite nature AND the expression, thought, experience, feeling.. whatever appears, the finite. It is in the coincidence of these two that we find our full beneficial nature.
Suddenly I see..
This is the training, the moment to moment to practice.. recognizing what we are in and as what is appearing... the question is aligned with reality or not, got both ingredients or not?
When we are aligned with truth, we drop the rock, we are at rest, there is a feeling of well being with everything just as it is. Nothing needs to change, no one needs to be different, we allow all experiences to come and go, we are at peace, we are naturally beneficial, we know what to do, how to contribute, it is clear. lovely.... and it all seems really funny then..
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