There are three stages in one’s spiritual development,” said the Master. “The carnal, the spiritual and the divine.”
“What is the carnal stage?” asked the eager disciples.
“That’s the stage when trees are seen as trees and mountains as mountains.”
“And the spiritual?”
“That’s when one looks more deeply into things—then trees are no longer trees and mountains no longer mountains.”
“And the divine?”
“Ah, that’s Enlightenment,” said the Master with a chuckle: "When trees become trees again and mountains, mountains.”
I was looking at a sunset last Friday evening. An old man came up to me and said, “What are you looking at? You seem all enraptured.” I said, “I’m enraptured by the beauty.” He came back for two weeks more and saw me looking again last evening. He said, “I see the sun and the clouds and the trees but what is this beauty?” I said, “Beauty isn’t a thing but rather a way that you will come to see everything. Even the cracks in the sidewalk on a crowded street. Your society taught you what to look for but not how to see. Love sees through what hate looks at.”
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There are three stages in one’s spiritual development,” said the Master. “The carnal, the spiritual and the divine.”
“What is the carnal stage?” asked the eager disciples.
“That’s the stage when trees are seen as trees and mountains as mountains.”
“And the spiritual?”
“That’s when one looks more deeply into things—then trees are no longer trees and mountains no longer mountains.”
“And the divine?”
“Ah, that’s Enlightenment,” said the Master with a chuckle: "When trees become trees again and mountains, mountains.”
I was looking at a sunset last Friday evening. An old man came up to me and said, “What are you looking at? You seem all enraptured.” I said, “I’m enraptured by the beauty.” He came back for two weeks more and saw me looking again last evening. He said, “I see the sun and the clouds and the trees but what is this beauty?” I said, “Beauty isn’t a thing but rather a way that you will come to see everything. Even the cracks in the sidewalk on a crowded street. Your society taught you what to look for but not how to see. Love sees through what hate looks at.”
Has it ever occurred to you that you can only love when you are alone.
What does it mean to love?
It means to see a person, a thing, a situation, as it really is and not as you imagine it to be, and to give it the response it deserves. You cannot love what you do not even see.
And what prevents you from seeing? Your concepts, your categories, your prejudices and projections, your needs and attachments, the labels you have drawn from your conditioning and from your past experiences.
Seeing is the most arduous thing a human being can undertake. For it calls for a disciplined, alert mind, whereas most people would much rather lapse into mental laziness than take the trouble to see each person and thing anew in present moment freshness.
To drop your conditioning in order to see is arduous enough. But seeing calls for something more painful still. The dropping of the control that society exercises over you; a control whose tentacles have penetrated to the very roots of your being, so that to drop it is to tear yourself apart.
If you wish to understand this, think of a little child that is given a taste for drugs. As the drug penetrates the body of the child, it becomes addicted and its whole being cries out for the drug. To be without the drug is so unbearable a torment that it seems preferable to die.
Now this is exactly what society did to you when you were a child. You were not allowed to enjoy the solid, nutritious food of life: work and play and the company of people and the pleasures of the senses and the mind. You were given a taste for the drug called Approval, Appreciation, Attention, the drug called Success, Prestige, Power. Having got a taste for these things, you became addicted and began to dread their loss. You felt terror at the prospect of failure, of mistakes, of the criticism of others. So you became cravenly dependent on people and lost your freedom.
Awaken2Now (Nothing To Figure Out)
There are three stages in one’s spiritual development,” said the Master. “The carnal, the spiritual and the divine.”
“What is the carnal stage?” asked the eager disciples.
“That’s the stage when trees are seen as trees and mountains as mountains.”
“And the spiritual?”
“That’s when one looks more deeply into things—then trees are no longer trees and mountains no longer mountains.”
“And the divine?”
“Ah, that’s Enlightenment,” said the Master with a chuckle: "When trees become trees again and mountains, mountains.”
I was looking at a sunset last Friday evening. An old man came up to me and said, “What are you looking at? You seem all enraptured.” I said, “I’m enraptured by the beauty.” He came back for two weeks more and saw me looking again last evening. He said, “I see the sun and the clouds and the trees but what is this beauty?” I said, “Beauty isn’t a thing but rather a way that you will come to see everything. Even the cracks in the sidewalk on a crowded street. Your society taught you what to look for but not how to see. Love sees through what hate looks at.”
