All Of Life Is A Journey

Are they for real? Would you like me to lead you to him? she volunteered. I can take you by a back path that no one knows about, and it is unguarded. So the policemen followed the squirrel and burst in on the unsuspecting gang. There was a brief but fierce fight, and all the brigands were captured. During the melee, one of the policemen emerged from a hut with an infant, and the serving woman recognized her son. She rushed toward him, and the policeman, mistaking her intent, swung his stave and broke her neck. She died without holding her son, who became an orphan. It’s so unfair, muttered the Golden Squirrel as she left the scene. There really is no justice in this world. In the words of Anthony DeMello, Jesuit priest and enlightened seer, There is no explanation you can give that would explain away all the sufferings and evil and torture and destruction and hunger in the world! You’ll never explain it. You can try gamely with your formulas, religious and otherwise, but you’ll never explain it. Because life is a mystery, which means your thinking mind cannot make sense of it.

Enough Is Enough

For that you’ve got to wake up and then you’ll suddenly realize that reality is not the problem, you are the problem. For some of you, this will make immediate and profound sense. If so, let it sink in. For others, this will appear stupid and may even arouse anger and hostility. Be open to the possibility that, sometime in the future, it will become clearer. All of life is a journey to reach a higher level of consciousness. Think about where you are on the continuum of consciousness. Plot what you’ll do to make progress, but recognize even as you plan that none of it is within your control. Remember, you need to invest in the process, not the outcome. There is one characteristic you have, a single trait, that causes the vast majority of all the problems you face. More precisely, all the problems you think you face. I said trait, but if you want to think of it as a defect, go right ahead.

Don't Run Away

It’s really pernicious. I’ve already talked about this, but let’s examine it in more detail now. There’s nothing you do that doesn’t reek of your desire to rearrange the world to suit your convenience. I have deliberately used strong and provocative language. Do you find yourself seething with anger and bristling with hostility? Do you quickly, almost instantaneously, evaluate each person you meet and then behave in a fashion that reflects your likes and dislikes? Do you laugh louder at the jokes of a millionaire and forgive his social gaffes? No, no, you don’t expect anything from him. It’s not as blatant as that. It’s simply a subtle way of communicating that you’re open to further discourse. Do you seek out the company of people who delight you? Who tell you how good you are and stroke that fragile ego of yours? Do you avoid people who grate on you? Do you get irritated at the boor who talks too loudly on his cell phone during your commute, or the rude lout who rests his shoe on the seat next to you? These are just a few of the ways in which you’re trying to engineer the world into what you would like it to be. Please understand, there’s nothing wrong with trying to do that. As long as you occupy your human body, you have to do something to fill your time. You have a mind, it has preferences, so you might as well try to humor your druthers. There’s no problem here.

Beware Of Darkness

As I showed there, the model itself is fallacious. It’s not what you try for that’s wrong. Nothing that you try for is wrong in that sense, although you obviously want to think seriously about anything that is illegal, immoral, or unethical. What is wrong is the notion that if you succeed in your particular rearrangement, you will be happier. Success may well bring you a temporary thrill that you mistake for more happiness, but the feeling soon passes, and you begin the weary quest all over again. He was a mighty emperor who could have whatever he wanted. Astute generals and mighty armies were his to command. Squads of servitors were ready to jump to his wishes. Courtesans and jesters waited to amuse him if summoned. But still he was unsettled. He was subject to mood swings, and the range of these was epic. One of his generals won a mighty victory over a longtime enemy, and the emperor was thrilled beyond measure. Two days later, his favorite queen was stricken with a dreadful, possibly terminal disease, and he was plunged into despair. He learned that his recovered queen was now barren and his successor would have to be the son of his second queen, whom he despised, and the world weighed heavy on him again. And so it went on, day after day, year after year. He would be up, and he would be down. It seemed that, despite his power and wealth, he was down more often and with greater intensity. Somehow he knew this was wrong. Life was not meant to be like this. So he sent for the head priest of the temple, a man of great wisdom and spiritual accomplishment. His father had never made any important decision without soliciting the views of the priest, but the present emperor had departed from this practice. Tell me, beseeched the monarch. Tell me what I must do so I am not chained to this vale of sorrow, fluctuating between exhilaration and depression like a ball tossed to and fro between small children at play. The old man looked at the troubled emperor with compassion. Your Majesty, you have fallen far from the understanding you had when you came to me for lessons in your younger days, he said sorrowfully.