The Cerebral Understanding Is Easy

Can you adopt this model? For Pete’s sake, what’s happening out there? You can’t imagine life without her. The door to your cell is kicked open, and two men rush in. One of them is the pirate captain. You! he screams, looking at you with bloodshot eyes. You brought them here. He grabs you by the collar and throws you on the floor. You shout as your different injuries hurt simultaneously. Seeing your awkward knee, he smiles maliciously and lifts his foot. He is wearing army boots, and he brings one down on your injured knee with all his weight. Once you’re awake, do you try to go back and see if your wife made it out safely? What happened to that question, the question you were so desperate to know the answer to? You’re the actor, not the character. See yourself relishing the role and playing it with gusto. Is the character being hit with unusual buffets? It’s a complicated and nuanced role that will allow you, the actor, to demonstrate your exceptional talent.

The Ground Beneath Your Feet

You gird your loins and prepare to give the very best performance of which you’re capable. It will stand you in exceptionally good stead if you can. When you wake up, you’re anchored in the unity proclaimed by so many mystics in different traditions. The bad news is that waking up is both incredibly simple and unbelievably difficult. The cerebral understanding is easy, but to be steeped in it involves the extinction of the ego, which is not something that’s likely to happen tomorrow. The good news is that even a rudimentary sense that this is actually the way things are and a determination, however imperfect, to traverse that route will completely turn your life around and propel you into an infinitely more pleasant realm. Sometimes, as in the following story, the seeming injustice of the world is the spur that leads to awakening. The Golden Squirrel was hurrying along the forest path when she came across a brigand. The police who had apprehended him had left him there while they went to the nearby river to rest and eat. They weren’t about to share their meager supply of food with him. He was trussed up and not going to go anywhere. Save me, the brigand begged the Golden Squirrel.

Going Round

These are renegade police officers, and my life is forfeit if they get me to their station. What have you done that they have arrested you? inquired the Golden Squirrel. I have done nothing evil, answered the brigand. I was a bonded laborer. My master was unjust and used to beat me, so one day I broke loose from my chains and thrashed him before running away. For this, I was branded an outlaw. I’ve been in the deepest forest ever since and am the leader of a group of people who’ve been similarly mistreated. We were safe until these rogues in uniform, who are really bounty hunters, came to know our whereabouts. Please free me, and I will look after you forever. So piteously did he recount his tale that the Golden Squirrel was moved, and she gnawed through the ropes that bound him. Quickly, he scooped her up and vanished into the jungle, back to his house. The brigand was true to his word and looked after the squirrel well.

If You Needed Somebody

Freed of the necessity to forage, she became fat and slow. One day, the brigand’s wife grabbed her and put her in a cage. The brigand remonstrated with his wife, but she shut him up brusquely. The flesh of the Golden Squirrel is tasty beyond belief, and she will be my lunch tomorrow, declared the wife. You can have some too, but don’t you dare interfere. So to keep the peace, the brigand acquiesced. I saved your life, the Golden Squirrel reminded him. How can you do this to me? It’s not fair. That’s true, agreed the brigand. But there is no justice in the world. That’s the way life is. Ask anyone if you don’t believe me. The Golden Squirrel looked at the goat grazing nearby, and it nodded its head sadly. I give them milk, yet they beat me. When I run dry, they will cut my throat and eat me. It’s true that there is no justice in the world. The squirrel looked at the serving maid, and she also shook her head. I had a family and a house once, she said, but the brigand killed my husband and stole my child. I dare not run away because I don’t know where my child is, and the brigand will kill him if I leave. There is definitely no justice in the world. The Golden Squirrel’s heart sank as she realized the perfidy of the man she had saved. The thief as he hung up the cage. That’s the way life is. I would have kept you well, but since you’re going to die anyway, I might as well grab a morsel of you for myself. I too have heard that your flesh is tasty, and there is more of it now than when you came. And he laughed shamelessly. That night, the servant came silently to the cage and opened the door. She picked up the Golden Squirrel and placed her gently on the ground. Run away, little one, she said. There is no justice in the world, but sometimes there is a little balance. Come with me, entreated the little creature. They’ll know you did this and will kill you. No, little one, replied the maid. I can’t flee for fear of what will befall my son. They’ll beat me, but they won’t kill me because I’m useful to them. This is my fate, and I will suffer it. Some months later, the Golden Squirrel chanced on a party of policemen. From their conversation, she divined that they were the ones who had captured the brigand and were still looking for him. Don’t give vent to your feelings.