The Meaning of Life & Who Is Your Infinite I?
?For most of human history we have searched for our place in the cosmos.
Who are we? What are we? We find that we inhabit an insignificant planet of a
hum-drum star lost in a galaxy tucked away in some forgotten corner of a
universe in which there are far more galaxies than people. We make our world
significant by the courage of our questions, and by the depth of our answers.? ~
Carl Sagan.
The king asked the Buddha, ?Are you a God?? The Buddha said ?No.? Then
the king then asked, ?Are you a Saint?? ?No,? replied the Buddha. ?Are you a
Magician? asked the king? ?No? said the Buddha. Then the king asked, ?What
are you?? The Buddha replied simply, ?I am Awake.?
Enlightenment (what most Spiritual Seekers are looking for) - Suppose it's all a
deception! Well, suppose it is. Look what happens: as soon as the deception is
seen, and the pretence is relinquished – =PROGRESS‘ is made, because it's
progress away from exaggeration, away from being right or wrong or being
enlightened or =being‘ anything at all!
Don't know, got no idea, have no business talking about it, writing about it,
teaching, who would know anyway, just the knowing which isn't knowing. The
more belief systems are questioned, the better! Surrender even the hope of
progress, and progress will happen on its own. Maybe =enlightenment‘ truly
does disrupt the patterns of Ego, and so the Ego reacts with fear?
Regrettably, most of us, are merely in search of (at least) =Feeling Better,‘ while
possibly surrounding ourselves with consoling sayings and beliefs, incense, and
countless books on obscure subjects written by others who themselves have not
reached enlightenment! (The late =Douglas Harding‘ (1), one of the few who
seemed to know of what he spoke, titled one of his books, =On Having No
Head‘). But let's face it: of all the people that you and I know who have spent a
good deal of their lives sitting on meditation cushions, chanting in Sanskrit,
gulping psychedelics like M&Ms, and subscribing to =The Yoga Journal,‘ how
many have achieved the pinnacle of ‘Human Possibility‘ that all of the great
=Spiritual Teachings‘ insist is available to anyone, if only we wanted it as badly
as life itself?
It would mean putting =enlightenment‘ at the top of our to-do list and priorities,
ahead of career, family, comfort and security, things which, speaking for myself
- actually comprise some of my favourite parts of being alive. In the Christian
world, of course, Jesus was a fisher of men and told them to put down their nets
right there and then and said to them ?Follow Me.?
