FEAR XIII

You are the only thief you need to fear.Other people can take things away from you, but only you can steal your own peace and strength. Only you can hold on to all the extra baggage that is weighing you down. You fear loosing the very things that are draining your vitality.

There are two voices inside you. One says that you must have insurance. "Bad times are coming and you cannot take care of yourself. Unless you have some advantage you will be trampled underfoot. So find some power and security. Get more money, prestige and titles." With all this you make a mask and hide behind it because you believe you are week and inadequate.

There is also within you a quieter voice. If you are still you can hear this other voice. "You are strong, you already have enough-indeed you have too much. You have become a walking junkyard of unnecassary activities, things and strivings. You believe all these things benefit you by protecting you. In fact, they smother you. Get rid of your protections. Stand naked. Learn again that you were born with all that you need, that you are a part of the flow of life!"

If you stop worrying about the past and planning for the future you will be able to experience the pleasure now-moment. Only when you are truly in the now can you hear the rhythm and dance with it. Think of the petal on a daisy. It has no extra coat for a cold night, no umbrella for a hot day. Such protections would way the petals down and eventually bend it away form the rest of the flower.Then there would be loneiness and feelings of being different and inadequate. it would do no good to add more overcoats and umbrellas; the extra weight would only make the problem worse.

Shedding your protection is uncomfortable. You will feel exposed when you drop your baggage. You will feel tempted to save a little something-just on case! Do not do it.

Stand alone in the desert. You will begin again to see what is around you, to feel your strength. You will learn that you are at home.

PAIN XII

The parents of all life are the sky and the earth. They come together to form a womb. Here all the people, animals, and plants recieve what they need to travel their paths.

Storms accompany all bornings. It is in the wild turbulence that we learn the skills for our growth.

As you travel along your path there must be many springs. Without the cold and barren winter there can be no spring beauty. Winter is the season of the womb, Its pain our friend our beacon. It points out the direction for our journey. There are only two roads in life, growing and dying. The bud must go through the discomfort of unfolding or it will shrivel.

If we use our cleverness to avoid pain we will not learn valuable lessons. Bodily discomfort tells us when we have broken natures rhythm. The pain it he heart reminds us of the winter of the womb, and again we can prepare for a new step in life.

You must not remain in the pain. It is only the vestibule of change. Suppose that on a hot august afternoon you come upon a cool lake. You can suffer the discomfort and insecurity of jumping in the lake. Or you can move away and come back to the lake another day. If you choose to remain fixed on the edge you will destroy yourself. There is no way of avoiding the shock of the plunge. No matter how clever you are the decision will always be the same - leap or turn away. If you will not make the choice your strength will fade away. Most of your sorrow in life comes from trying not to choose or from taking a half step.

Life is like a ladder. You climb up to a rung. Then you regain your composure. In time you become comfortable on the rung. Perhaps you even become an expert concerning this rung. You do not want to become a struggling beginner again. Yet if you learn that each step is only a rung, you will welcome the freshness of each beggining. Then every step you take in life, even death itself, becomes an act of renewal.

DETATCHMENT XI

You like to look at red leaves in the fall, this is good; it increases your awareness and perhaps is even the beginning of the realization that the red leaves and you are one. But if you must see the red leaves- if you push something aside in order to see the leaves- if you can think of nothing but the leaves-if you look at a person and think, "here is a person who can drive me into the countryside to see more red leaves" then you are being possessed by your desire for red leaves. You are afraid you will miss something. You do not have that something you want. You are grasping. If you are to find your true nature and to follow the spiritual path, you must learn to detach.

In the beginning the process of detachment seems cold. When a person sits down in meditation or prays by resting in the Spirit she empties herself of everything. How lonely that sounds. But being alone is not necessarily lonely. To detach from your preoccupations is to have faith in the life process and to know that you are a part of it. Through detachment you do not forsake people and your environment. Detachment is a means of connecting with them at a deeper level. For it is not people or things that distract you, but your desires. It is from these desires that you must learn to detach.

Desires are like demons. There are many demons, each with its own name and characteristics. Some are called respectability, security, superiority, control, recognition, stubbornness, all creatures from the heel of self centeredness. These are the demons that separate you from other people and life. Suppose you look at a person and you feel competitive. Then you are not in contact with that person. If you can learn to detach from your competitive desires, then you can begin to touch that person. If you see antoher person simply as an audience for your words and actions, you are trying to relate to that person on the level of the demons. You do not see the person at all, but simply yourself. If you detach from self, you are free to see the other person and perhaps even to love that person.

Detachment begins by entering into the silence of your own inner being. These demons exist on the periphery of your inner world. Yet you seldom go past them to experience what lies at the center. Do not let the demons possess you. Push past them. Do not try to conquer them. Just detach from them. Move on. The greatest possible distraction is trying to push other distractions away. Let your thoughts and feelings dance and yell. Just move on. Sometimes you act as if you are your troubles. You are not your troubles. They are a pert of you but not all of you. Move through them.

Do not mistakes of cursing the demons or your troubles. They are valuable to you. Solving problems is not really important. Finding your true nature is of great importance. Unless you become who you are, you will wander through life on a barren and dusty road. Demons and troubles create a darkness. In this darkness you can find your inner light. You would not be able to find the flame of a candle on a desert at high noon. You can see the candle flame easily at midnight.**

So do not despise the dog that barks during your meditation. If a thoughtless person has upset you, do not blame him for your agitation at times of prayer. Remember it is you who chooses to struggle with demons rather than continuing on your way. Look for your light. Nothing else matters.

PEACE X

You long for peace, yet there is no such thing as peace. It is nothing. Peace is simply the absence of troubles and worries. Troubles and worries are your attempts to control the future. You are given a chair to sit in, but instead you break it up for firewood in case you get cold, or use it as a torch to help you look around a corner. Forget the future it is only a dream. Sit in a chair. Find your rest. If you forget the future you will have no trouble in the moment-this now. Anything that disturbs you is in the future. Sit down and there is no trouble now-or now-or now-or now. Make your life a series of nows that is how you were meant to live.

Do not make a goal of inner peace. Peace is the absence of war, the cessation of hostilities, the end of striving. You go spinning around, fighting with yourself, with others, or with life itself. If you stop the fight you will find peace. Peace is not something to achieve. You cannot fight your way to it; It is something you do. You always have a choice: to fight or be at peace.

You stop the fight when you stop acting as if you are different than you are and stop your longing for what others have. You try to be someone else because you do not think you have the strength to do it yourself. But you do.

Being yourself means being old when you are young, young when you are old. It means not looking at the peak when you start to climb that mountain. Being yourself means trusting in your ability and using all the strength you have. Being yourself means not dissipating your energy on petty things. When there is striving, cleverness and wanting, there is no peace.

You are like a dirty infant who is playing in the mud. You are obsessed with the desire to have as much mud as another child. You wallow around getting dirtier all the time. Yet you are a royal child. You have everything you need for the adventure of life.

Come now. Wash your face. Walk out into the garden. Sit in your chair. Rest. Be still. While you have been int he mud, the tree and the wind have been dancing together. Look at them. How beautifully they move together. No matter what happens to them, all will be well. For they are being themselves. They are not acting like things they are not. Neither are they denying what they are. You are a wind to the tree, and a tree to the wind. Be yourself. Do not live beneath your nature and all will be well with you.

CONTROL IX

Turn on the heat and you kill the cold. Switch on the light and you destroy the darkness. Manipulate the conversation and you will never hear the words to come.

You have no right to control anything that is not you. Controlling other animals, people, ideas, is what makes you separate and lonely. When you see all life's inconveniences as your ememies, you are setting yourself apart.

If you hear that a person a thousand miles away is having to spend an hour doing some work he does not enjoy, you are not too concerned.But when you are that person you act as if the world were ending. You are not listening to the lessons around you. Instead you shout about the injustice, look for short cuts, and start pushing the world around in order to gain advantage. Try to look upon yourself as if you were a thousand miles away.

Your ancestors moved with the day. They rose when the sun came up. If one place became crowded they moved away. When it was dark they looked at the stars and they slept. You protect yourself with a house and blanket. You stay up late so that you need a alarm to control your sleep. You turn on the heater because it is cold or let a fan blow away the heat. You are like a nearsighted child running through a schoolhouse full of exciting activities , shutting all the doors. You are missing many lessons with your control.

You are so afraid of being deprived of something that you reject your birthright without knowing what it is.

Be aware of all the hundreds of ways in which you are controlling and manipulating during the course each day. Hesitate a moment each time you are tempted. Awareness is the beginning of growth.

Sometimes your ancestors destroyed life. They would kill and animal or plant.They would do so with respect. The animal was not an object or an enemy. The animal and the people were one. Only when you understand that you are one with all things can you safely destroy things.The cold is not your enemy.You and the cold are one. You and the darkness are one.When you feel this, you will move with grace. and with a smile to do what is right to do.

TEACHERS VII

There will be times when you will use a spiritual guide. Your attitude will limit your teacher's ability to help you. She can only talk to you about the things you are ready to hear.

You will often be disapointed in her. You have gone in search of a great spiritual master and all you find is a very mundane and very human person. Soon you realize she is no better than you! The person that seems to be ready to ascend to the heights of heaven is not a teacher but an actor who will help you live a spiritual daydream in exchange for a little idolatry. The true teacher will not attempt to encounter you except where you are. she will often appear a little foolish. If underneath your mask you are babbling on, then your teacher will babble. As she walks on your path she will try to point out a few things that will help you slow down a little, but she can onl talk about what interests you.

Have you ever attempted to put a toddler in a stroller? He does not want to sit down; he wants to get over there. How can he get over there by sitting down? How do sitting and moving go together? He knows what is good for him.After a while he may decide that you may have a feasible plan but he does not want to be the one to try it. Could he not just watch the stroller roll on down by itself? Or why do you not get it and show him how it works? Perhaps he watches another little child in a stroller and gets the idea. Now he knows how to do it better than you so he gets in backwards,. You have to take him out and turn him around. And he yells-what does taking him out of the stroller have to do with getting him into the stroller? About this time he decides to become an expert at the right rear wheel.He plays with it and fixes his attention totally upon it. After all, is not this the really important part of the stroller? Then , just aasyou get him in, he decides that it has taken too long, or you do not know what you are doing,or he is not able to do it, or it will not work, so he demands to get out and go back into the house.

Getting a child into a stroller is much simpler than guiding a person on a spiritual path.You look to a teacher to show you how to be fullfilled. Yet the only thing a teacher has to give you is a little advise about not seeking fullfillment , or power, or love, or respect, o anything else.It is as if you had come to a beautifull walled city. If you attempt to write your own ticket and decide what is best for you, all your teacher can do is walk around the outer wall with you. So as long as ou have desires or expectations you make your teacher walk in a circle. Give up your desires and she can quickly tae you inside the wall.

A teacher is only a mirror.She helps you see yourself.She is a medium for the true guide residing within you. The teacher gives your inner guide a voice. And when you and this ever-present guide engage in a flowing conversation your teacher will quietly leave. Then if you want to find your teacher you must look on her path. There the teacher will be walking and talking to the guide within her.

AWAKE VII

You are looking for something and you just passed it.

The trouble is you do not know when you are asleep. In the days when people took more time to walk on a spiritual path, a student would look for a master with whom to live. He focused his whole attention on this quest. He found a master and would be accepted as a student. Year after year he would follow his master around. He waited. Nothing ould happen. Finaly, after many years he would realize there was nothing to wait for. All this time he had been offered instruction but he did not see it.

Spiritual riches are always wrapped in plain paper and when you open the box it is empty.

It is important that you become self-affirming, that you do not look to the opinions of others to find value. It is only the self-affirming people who can feel the spiritual significance of a particular situation. Two people can enter the same spiritual house. The one sees only classes to attend, rules to discover, some dishes to wash, some times tobe quiet. He is patient. He waits. Everything is ordinary. Finally he is bored and leaves. The environment is not at all like his fantasy of a spiritual life.

The other student does not look outside but listens inside. Her own inner voice translates for the songs of the house. For her this is the beginning of the most exciting adventure that life can offer. She sees many significant happenings around her. She understands that all these wonderfull things are just an ordinary part of life.

Impatiently you find a guide.And with even more impatience you follow your guide around, waiting to get down to the really important things. There may come a moment when you discard your expectations. Then you will look slowly around an utter - Oh!

Then , your guide will smile.

GROWTH VI

As with any living thing, you are either growing or you are decaying. There is no middle ground.

The ancient tree puts forth fresh leaves each year and it bears fruit on wood that is new and supple. There is within the tree the same vitality which produced fruit in the first season. No matter how old you become there is within you a child, with your name , waiting to be born. That youg person has the same spiritual freshness at ninety as at nine.

In order for you to live you must grow. How? By gently unfolding your potential by practicing the art of living. Each day you must stretch a little into the uncomfortable. Do not seek perfection. Denounce perfection. Growth is natural. Only when you attempt to arrest the process and remain immature will decay begin. With decay comes a decline in your vital energy.The result of growth is vitality. There is always within you a hunger for life. Do not clutter up your inner space with useless things. The more you add the more you will want.Spiritual growth means discarding unnecessary things. Learn the joy of having less.

Many people do not grow because they are not themselves. You must begin by beng yourself, no matter what that means.Do not attempt to look like or be anything but what you are. And then the process of growth can begin.

When people discover who they are they become fascinated and never move. They are hypnotised by the image they see in the mirror. Slowly they sink into the mire, looking only at the mirror they hold before their face. Those who choose to mature put down the miror and move towards a spiritual conversion.

The gateway to that spiritual path is you. You are like a seed. All that you require was contained within you at birth.Look inward if you want to find the wisdom to grow.Everything you need is waiting for you. As you truly become yourself you become less conscious of yourself. You simply are who you are. All of the great conversions in history have simply meant people discovering their own nature.Behind every self centered brat is a divine flame. It may take many years for that flame to be liberated but it is there.No matter how hard t is to accept, you must understand that the only difference between you and any religious person you admire is that your hero has discovered his or her true nature.

Many may live without knowing this treasure within them. Most discover it only a few hours or days before their last breath. There is no need yo wait; you can begin today.

LISTENING V

In every corner of your world there blows a gentle wind that sings a silent song. You must listen for that song.

Usually your mind is filled with questions, arguments, and expectations. Do not add anymore by considering how you will go about listening or congratulating yourself on how well you are doing. And especially do not believe that you know what you are going to hear. It is enough that you know the beginning. If you try to guess what will follow, you will not hear what you were meant to hear. So you must listen without expectations. Indeed, you must not expect that you will hear anything at all! For there is no goal or object to your listening. You are not listening for something. The listening itself is the end of the journey.

Do not Climb a mountain in order to listen. Go Down into the Valley.

Listening is emptying out. It means giving up everything. Remove your inner noise and the silent song will enter in. The song is being sung all the time. The breeze that bears this song comes from deep stillness. It is its natureto enter into any silence it encounters. You do not have to capture the song. It is not possible for you to do so. If you would experience the song you must be silent and listen to the stillness at your core.

Men and women do not hear what is constantly being spoken to them. Even those who profess to be longing for the song often make so much noise in their quest that there is no room for song to enter in.

All that is required of you is that you learn to be truly quiet. Do that and all else will happen without your effort.

The willow has only to stand still and the wind will move its branches.

If the willow tried to create a wind by frantically waving its branches it would miss the real wind when it came. The attempt to create a wind will quickly exhaust you. When the wind of the silent song touches you, you are refreshed. So, like the willow, stand still.

All your life your heart has been singing a little soundless song. Listen to the song of your heart, because it is part of the great silent song. Open the door of your heart and the wind of the spirit will come like an arrow to target. Simply uncover the target and wait fir what you cannot hear or see. The arrow knows what to do. That is all that is necessary.

PRAYER IV

When you guide a child you help him develop his strength. You teach him not to ask you to solve a problem that he could face himself. The spoiled child does not want there to be any problems. If there is an adult who caters to him the child never develops his strength and goes through life holding tight to his mediocre images of existence.

So it is with prayer. If you ask for favors you make a prayer a cold mechanical process. Some sit in quiet meditation in order to have have joy or peacefullness. Others pray that they may have a wish fullfilled or be assured a place among the elite of heaven or earth. Such people are blinded by the light of Self.

The Indian girl who rises with the sun does not do so because she wants something. She silently faces the east because she is a part of the process of Life that brings the sun. In the quiet she listens to the song at dawn and lets it awaken a song within her.

Prayer is a touching. Move to the quiet within you. Let no thought or desire possess you. Stay within your inner stillness as if you were waiting at home for a great guest.

You must learn patience. Be sure you are in when the guest comes. You will feel a soft gentle touch. When you do, then reach out and touch that which is touching you. Gently take your guide's hand and be led deep into the waters of solitude. You will leave behind all games, all desires, all greed, all dullness. Finally, you will leave you behind.

When you exit from your prayer you can travel back over the same old road and pick up all the armor you cast aside. But many other doors are also open unto you. You can awake unto a new life. The moment of touching is a moment of death and rebirth. All that is in you can be recreated in that moment.

Prayer is a new dawn.

GOD III

When you were small you were told of Gods more powerful than adults. You believed. But when you were tall enough to look directly at the face of God, you discovered it was only a mask. You were angry and turned away from the god-mask.

Your childhood experiences could be the end of your relationship with God. You are filled with doubt. But your doubt is holy and could guide you to refreshing spiritual realities. If you are fortunate you will run across some truly spiritual people.If you beleive they have no desire to determine you path or control your behavior, you will feel free to listen to their experiences.

First, you will hear that the god-like mask is an image painted for those who are not participating in a divine experience. There may be some sadness. Down deep you wish for a parent who will get you out of trouble - one who constantly thinks of you. But flowing with the sadness comes a realization of your own inner strength.

Then you will of a divinity in which you can participate. It has been called by many names, the God-head, the Tao, the Divine Darkness, the Creator, the Source of our Being. "God" is also a word for the fundamental mystery of existence. Because it is a word it should have a meaning; because it describes a mystery it can never have a universal definition.

When you were a child you wanted to know where God lived. you imagined a super human being, like Santa Claus, who lived "up there". As you grew older you realized there was no "up there". In church you heard about a supernatural being who lived in a place parallelto your world but not of it. A god who is superhuman or supernatural is distant from you. But perhaps God is not so remote. It may be that God is not a being but is Being itself..
God is unlimited; definitions of God are all limited. God cannot be captured in a net of words.

As you move along the path in life there comes a moment when you truly realize that you will not live forever. What is the relationship of the experience between your birth and death to what existed before you and continue after you?

"God" is a word. "God?" is the fundamental question about what it mans to be a complete person."God?" is a challenge to realize your humanness through an experience of what is unchanging and unlimited. Do not quest for "God" but for "God?"

There is a rhythm in all life. The rhythm can only be heard in moments of quiet. If you are in harmony with this rhythm there will be a sense of completeness in you and in all the people and things you touch. At first you only look outside yourself for the rhythm and there is only a faint sound. Then you listen inside.

When you hear the song you must decide what you will do. You can wander in search of other tunes. You can stand rigid and continue to listen. Or you can let the song possess you.You can become a part of the rhythm of Life and open ourself to the ultimate frontiers of existence. If that happens to you, then to the question "God?" you have responded, "Yes!"

THE SEASONS II

A tree knows where it is on Nature's wheel.Whatever the position-budding, in full leaf, with ripe fruit-it is all part of being a tree.

There are seasons in your Life. Do not try to escape a season. If you try to bear fruit when it is time to bud, you may never bud.

Listen to the Song of Nature. Every year is a cycle. There is time for activity and a time for quiet. There are moments of beginning and moments of ending. There are seasons for moving and seasons for removal. Be still and learn. See Natures story unfold. Watch a bird and a tree. Learn about the commonness between you and the bird. Let the tree help you find your place.

Be aware of the day. There are seasons to the day. The dawn is Spring. Summer is midday. The afternoon is autumn. Winter comes at night. You were made to experience this cycle each day. Remove your walls of protection. Move in rhythm with the day. Always remember that tomorrow there is another cycle, another turn of the wheel.

Every breath is a cycle of life.
Take in the sweet Spring of your Breath.
Fill up your lungs with the Summer of the cycle.
Experience the Autumn joy of letting go.
Be empty and still in the Winter of your breath.
Now breath again, for there is always a new beginning and a new ending.

You will never take a breath more or less important than the one you are taking right now. You will never be in a day or year more or less important then the one you are in now.

Every single moment is a new beginning for all Life. This present second could see the end of it all. This instant is a new beginning for all. If you really jump into a now-moment you will be completely renewed.

Life, like an ocean is made up of many waves. There are waves for each moment, each day, each year, each life. If you hunger after a sense of completeness, be in harmony with the waves.

THE STORY I

You are a nessarry part of a long story. Your parents and granparents coud have helped you feel your place in the story when you were yet a young child. But a while back it seemed as if everyone forgot the story.So you grew up wondering about your value and worth. You have searched for a place where you can belong. Now, when you are older and it is harder, you must learn that your value is in being you and you belong here.

Learn from a flower. Many ages ago a seed became a flower. That flower produced seeds. The seeds grew into flowers. Each flower you look at today is part of a solid line of existence going back to the beginning of life. Each flower needs every flower and seed that has gone before it.

You are a flower and a seed. You are part of a story which began with the first cell of life. That story will continue on after you. The many things and people you have touched in your life will be influenced by you. The history of the world would not be the same if you had not been here. The small ripples you cause today may bring huge waves in ages to come.

It is wrong for you to go moping about. It is wastefull to be dissipating your energy on frivolous activities. It i sad for you to be grasping at tinsel and building flimsy nests.

You are a guardian of the seeds for the world to come. All that has gone before and all that is yet to come is within you. Through you passes humanity's saving fire. You are running in a relay.
This is the moment you have been chosen to hold the torch. You cannot refuse to run.Whatever you do is a part of your page in the story of life.

Be Yourself. That is who you are meant to be . You are a Note in a BeautifuLL Song!