LIFE LESSONS
How to Become a Victorious Horseman and Protect the World:
While knowing the idea of saving is an illusion
Like a life-giving rain You could become a victorious horseman And carry your heart through this world Though only if you and God become sweet Lovers. — Hafiz, from The Gift: Poems by Hafiz, The Great Sufi Master,” translated by Daniel Ladinsky
If we believe what our senses tell us, the world is in a heap of trouble — species of flora and fauna becoming extinct in record numbers; severe climate changes; the threat of nuclear, chemical, and biological attacks; plagues, social upheavals, and increasing widening economic gap. Indeed, it seems like a frightening time and many actions to be done.
However, is everything as it seems? And what is the right action to take anyway?
A long time ago I had a dream where I was with the Dalai Lama. I asked him if the Earth Changes of the Hopi were happening. He replied in the affirmative. Then I asked if any safe areas existed. He smiled and said, “There are no safe areas.”
Whether the Earth Changes prophesied are occurring or not, his response is full of wisdom. The world spins in perpetual change and offers no refuge from the suffering that all beings must eventually experience as we all race towards death — unless, of course, one abides in the deathless, changeless state of which that the Masters have spoken.
This is the meaning of the line by Hafiz: But only if you and God become sweet lovers. Yes, one can do great things to help the world, but only if one makes contact in the fearless place of Divine Love or Wisdom first.
Ramana Maharshi, a contemporary Indian sage, instructed those who wanted to save the world to find out who they were first. His primary practice he taught to achieve this was to trace the mind back to the Source from where all thoughts arise, including the thought to help. Once they had discovered the Being who possessed the body and mind, then they were to see if the world really needed saving.
Without the knowledge of who we are — not who we believe we are — all we are doing is acting out of ignorance.
Ramana would often use the famous metaphor of a jeweler who creates all sorts of different items of jewelry out of gold. A delusional mind will see just various items, such as bracelets, rings, necklaces, etc.; while an enlightened mind will see the gold that makes up all such pieces.
The mind constantly divides and categorizes into boxes such as good and bad, desirable, and undesirable. Look at our world where people are placed in categories of conservatives and progressives, patriots and traitors, believers and heretics, and countless other labels, basically boiling everything down to us and them.
If we find the Essential, the Gold that makes up everything, then the division disappears and the Unity is remembered, and the world becomes a whirling dance of changing forms of the One Essence.
When I was in college I had a near-drowning incident. From an observer’s perspective, who might be witnessing through the senses, I was suffering in my struggle to live. No doubt if they could see my body sinking down into the river, they would have felt great pity for me. However, my consciousness was watching my “rescuer” pull my body from the river, and when my consciousness was seeing out of my body’s eyes once more, there was no relief — only a density of feeling encased in the body once more. I was, in fact, quite disappointed to be back. From a body’s perspective, a tragedy was avoided; yet from a spiritual perspective, if my consciousness would not have returned to reanimate the body, no suffering would have existed at all.
Another example of judging situations by the limitations of our senses I saw in an experiment of pollen particles dancing upon a copper Chladni plate, vibrating through the playing of various notes. The higher the vibration, the more frantically the particles moved. As the camera zoomed in on the individual particles it looked like complete chaos. However, when the camera pulled back, a beautiful geometric pattern could be seen forming.
If we are acting from the perspective of bodies then we are not seeing from the higher perspective of Spirit. Fearful actions will only produce fearful results — such is the law of cause and effect. Loving actions, when there is recognition of the Unity of all things, will only produce loving results.
Of course, when we act out of love we do not always see the good fruit of our actions. Look at the assassinations of Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., two individuals who acted against ignorance with the awareness of the Unity of all things. Why should they have been killed if their motive was love, one might ask? However, faith in the bigger picture allows us to act while trusting in the magnificent pattern being formed, and only in hindsight, can we see that such actions like these great men did, has changed the pattern of the world.
Ramakrishna, another Indian sage, said that God laughed whenever a doctor said that he can heal a patient. Is not the Giver of breath in charge of it all? Or the Intelligence that creates this amazing pattern we call Life? This is true for the doctor as well as for anyone who is trying to heal the world or to make it a better place. Arjuna in The Bhagavad Gita was given a vision of all the warriors ready to fight on the battlefield being consumed by the Avatar Krishna. Krishna teaches Arjuna on this field of action that he must renounce the sense of doer-ship if he wants to reside in wisdom, for only bodies are doing, not the pure Divine Self.
The Self is the Power behind all actions, yet is not bound by them; just as the Sun shines down on Earth and enables all to act upon it, but it is not affected by actions down below. Arjuna, whose occupation was that of a warrior, was instructed to keep his mind fixed on the Infinite, not on the transitory; in that way his actions would be an act of offering, surrendering the fruits of his actions to God.
Know there is one, but act as though there are two
Arjuna was a victorious horseman, not because his side defeated the “bad guys,” but because he acted with the wisdom that there is only the One.
As there is a danger for people who are actively working in the world to get caught up in the limited perspective of the senses, to become attached to the results of their actions, not allowing time for introspection, and lumping people and actions into categories that continue the illusion of us and them; so, too, there is also a danger to non-duelists who have only an intellectual realization.
If everything is transitory and is ultimately being manifested by Divine Intelligence, why do anything? It is all a dream. All illusion. An indifference and cold hardheartedness can arise with such notions.
Ramana also said that we must know there is one, but act as though there are two. He did not advocate to run from the world and go into seclusion. In other words, we all have parts to play. Arjuna had his part to play as a warrior, a doctor his role as a healer, an artist to create works of art, an environmentalist to protect nature, a parent to ensure one’s children have the basics needed for a healthy life.
I doubt very few of the intellectually enlightened ones, or even religious practitioners who see salvation awaiting far off in another world, would defile their homes or places of worship with toxic sludge, or have their holy water be filled with garbage, or allow such treatment we see on the nightly news to happen in their personal space. Here the heart needs to expand the mind to see the world as one’s home and place of worship.
We all have the role of a citizen of the Earth. It is a role, but it is a divine role. It is the role of the Heart that brings life-giving rain to all beings who appear to suffer.
After all, the Divine Self, our Infinite Nature, in Truth, needs no help at all, not if we realize there exists only One — for who helps whom? The world offers so many wonderful opportunities to extend out of our little personal selves and become part of the bigger whole.
Let us act as the actors that we all are in this phenomenal world while remembering throughout this adventure, the Infinite One, is the Gold that underlies all our actions.
Thank you for reading. Check out my website, mindfulness-meditation-techniques.com for learning about various meditation practices and reading more articles and other writings. I have authored nine books, including The Teachings of Yama: A Conversation with Death. Visit my Author Page to know more. And if you liked this artwork of mine in this article you can see more on Pinterest.