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.