When I was a little kid I worried about if
I would grow tall, have a happy home, be independent,
find an appropriate career, have my own family,
find out what truth is and on and on I worried.
I did grow tall enough, I found out how to support
myself, I had my own family and I learned something
about truth. I read what others wrote of it.
I heard what others said of it. I prayed that
God would show it to me. I searched within and
without.
In spite of my searching and efforts, truth
made its appearance now and then, seemingly randomly.
It often wasn't what I expected or thought I
needed. But in the nick of time, light came,
this, that and the other appeared just when most
needed and least expected.
I did survive and get away from my oppressive
home of origin. I did have wonderful children
to love. I did find an interesting and successful
career in business. A great light did finally
dawn on me. Every worry was for naught, because
there was always a greater hand guiding mine.
A greater purpose seemed to surge ahead of my
own feeble reasoning and efforts.
I looked for God in religion and found Him instead
within my own heart. I looked for God in church
and found Him instead in the laughter of children,
in summer breezes, and in the sound of water
trickling over rocks.
Now I see finally that always and in everything
a higher power led, blessed, pointed, pushed
and pulled, protected, whispered to me.
I see now that all has happened as it needed
to and it always will be so. The light of consciousness
in which all things appear points directly to
pure beingness, pure awareness, and pure bliss.
It's when we let our own imaginings and worries
control us that we will have troubles and fears
in our lives.
Am I all these dramas and human foibles and
fears? Am I a father and husband and business
man? Do I exist as anything outside of pure awareness?
It seems obvious now: Consciousness is indeed
the root and basis of all. It's where God and
everything in every infinite universe always
appears.
It has become totally obvious. I open my eyes
and the creation appears in all its glory. I
close my eyes to sleep and in dreams the appearances
spring forth again. Great battles, flying machines,
a giant bear, fireflies, angelic beings. There
is no limit to what may appear in dreams. Now
just where are those inner visions appearing?
They are not dancing about in your bedroom while
you sleep. No, they appear within your consciousness,
the very same consciousness that contains your
waking world.
Even in dreamless sleep, there is consciousness
without details. As Ramana used to point out, "we
say we slept well or happily." Consciousness
lying there in a timeless and spaceless condition
of pure potential. Whether inner or outer visions,
they arise nowhere else other than in the light
of consciousness which we are and in which all
things appear and disappear.
I say "I" and imagine myself a separate
and self-sufficient being. Where does this "I" thought
come from to begin with? You guessed it; it always
arises in pure consciousness along with everything
else.
So I need not worry anymore. But if I do worry,
I know it's just something pure consciousness
is doing now and "I" am nowhere around.
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