Confined in a cage, up against a wall, pressed against barriers, if you linger in thought, holding back your potential, you will remain mired in fear and frozen in inaction. If, on the other hand, you advance fearlessly, and without hesitation, you manifest your power as a confident adept of the Way. Passing through entanglements and penetrating barriers without hindrance, the time and season of great peace is attained. How do you advance fearlessly and without hesitation? Listen to the following.
The National Teacher Daizhang and the Emperor Suzang arrived at the front gate of the imperial palace. The National Teacher pointed to a stone lion and said, "Your Majesty, this lion is so very, very rare, give me a single turning phrase about it." The emperor said, "The emperor can't give a phrase. Please, will the master give one." The National Teacher replied, "Oh, this is the mountain monk's fault." Later Jinyeng of Danhuang asked the National Teacher, "Did the emperor understand?" The National Teacher said, "Let's put aside whether he understood or not, how do you understand it?"
Each crisis an opportunity.
Yet if you fail to act, you miss it by a thousand miles.
The cave of the blue dragon is ominous, only the fearless dare to enter.
It is here that the forest of patterns are clearly revealed, the myriad of forms evident
It is here that the one bright pearl is hidden
Francis Lucille said it the other day (in Eternity Now), you have to accept the invitation to eternity, and surrender completely. Don't analyze it, don't think about it, don't try and figure it out, don't try and anticipate what it will be like, just surrender and acknowledge the eternity that you are. Surrender the limited view of your life for the unlimited potential that you really are.
And he is blunt when he answers questions about the fear we can get mired in,
One of the reasons I postpone making myself available to the invitation is that I fear my life will be radically changed.
Oh, yes. It will be.
My family, as well?
Your family, too. Everything will be changed.
I am afraid that people will leave me.
I can assure you that you will regret nothing.
Surrender takes place in only one place — that silent gap between your thoughts. After sitting long enough you find that path through the barriers and hindrances we've built up over the years, leading to that silence, and in that silence you'll hear the invitation. At that point, all that's required is to "advance fearlessly and without hesitation." Advance. Going nowhere. Yet arriving everywhere; at eternity.
Our fear (or, at least my fear) is caused by resistance to the truth, and by a lack of clarity, or a misunderstanding, of it. But if you face the fear and stay on the path, we have been assured there will come a point where you can no longer turn back. Again, Francis,
When our desire for the absolute overcomes our fear of death, we offer the pretense of our personal existence to the sacrificial fire of infinite consciousness. Henceforth, nothing stands in the way of awakening any longer and it progressively unfolds its splendor on all the planes of phenomenal existence, which, little by little, reveal their underlying non-temporal reality, like the gaze of Shams of Tabriz that, "was never cast upon some fleeting object without rendering it eternal."
"This is the mountain monk's fault." This is 'my' fault. OK, so what's new? Everything is 'my' fault. Everything is of me. Or, everything is of the awareness that is me, you, and everyone else. I have no choice but to accept responsibility for it all. Most people understand that they have to take responsibility for their actions. How many realize that they also must take responsibility for their perceptions?
We are not limited by reality as it is, but by reality as we perceive it, as we believe it to be. As Nisargadatta says in I Am That, "As long as one is burdened with a person, one is exposed to its idiosyncrasies and habits."
And he goes on to say,
"What is normal? Is your life... obsessed by desires and fears, full of strife and struggle, meaningless and joyless... normal? To be acutely conscious of your body, is it normal? To be torn by feelings, tortured by thoughts, is it normal? A healthy body, a healthy mind live largely unperceived by their owner: only occasionally, through pain or suffering they call for attention and insight. Why not extend the same to the entire personal life? One can function rightly, responding well and fully to whatever happens, without having to bring it into the focus of awareness. When self-control becomes second nature, awareness shifts its focus to deeper levels of existence and action.
...
"Once you realize that the person is merely a shadow of the reality. but not reality itself, you cease to fret and worry. You agree to be guided from within and life becomes a journey into the unknown."
"Each crisis an opportunity.
Yet if you fail to act, you miss it by a thousand miles."
So in order to live up to our potential, we must work fearlessly and without hesitation to realize that each and every crisis in our lives is an opportunity, and work constantly to expand our level of awareness and our perception of reality.
Under the full moon
Roosters, snakes, and pigs, all seen
Examine the weeds
DHS 41/100
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