The Zen Master
A man visits a Zen master to help him with understanding himself and life. The moment he sees the master he starts talking about himself, “Hi, I am Professor Wilfred. I work at Oxford University, I do this, this and that. I came here to learn the way of living.” The master tells him to sit down and asks if he wanted to drink tea. The professor says yes then the teacher pours tea into the cup, the cup overflows with tea, the professor says “The cup is overflowing!”
The teacher says to him “You came to me with an overflowing cup! How do you expect me to help and give you more? You already know a lot, you have lots of knowledge. If you are not empty and open I’m afraid I won’t be able to give you anything!”
The world and Us
Many of us live life thinking that we are our names, country, ethnicity, married, job, and so forth. Most of us define ourselves with titles. We have our cups filled with the knowledge that keeps away from who we really are.
For many of us, esoteric concepts or understandings are bohemians, thinking that such ideas do not belong to this world.
You were Sold!
We bought into the idea that we are humans and that we are weak and alone. No one told us that when we believe in such a way we manifest such powerless realities. No one told us that we are the masters of our own worlds, the inside and the outside. Our thinking and imagination are contaminated by falsehood and lies.
The Truth
The truth is that we are all piece of the Divine and we were created in its image. We have the power to create and co-create and that is done by our words, thoughts, images and actions.
My story with ALLAH (GOD)
Who am I? What Am I? Ask yourself this question tens of times. I did, when I was four years old, I got no logical answers. Most answers weren’t satisfying to my curiosity. One day I was with my grandpa standing in front of his herd, he was a farmer. I saw a funny frisky lamb, jumping and kicking here and there. I laughed at it with my grandpa; I picked a small stone and threw it at the poor lamb.
My grandpa got a bit angry and said to me “Don’t do this again. Allah (GOD) will be angry at you!” 🙂 This was the first time I was aware of the name by the way.
I got scared and asked him: “Grandpa, Who is ALLAH?” He replied “He is the creator. He is powerful!”. His answer wasn’t enough to me. I went home and asked my mom who ALLAH was. She said” He created you, me, your dad and all of us!” I asked “Where does he reside?” My mom didn’t answer me and changed the topic.
GOD At The Porch!
On a very very hot scorching day in Sudan Port Sudan city, I was with my mother visiting her friend. Mom decided to walk back home, a ten minutes’ walk under the blazing Sun. Mom held my hand and brisked. On our way back home, there was a big wooden house on the side with a long porch. There was an old man with a white beard, in white Sudanese jellabiya sitting on a bossy wooden chair, glancing at a giant book opened in front of him and reading elegantly aloud. I pulled my mom’s hand back to slow down and looked at the mighty old man; I was just a curious little boy.
The man eyeballed us seriously as he stopped reading. I asked my mom “Is this ALLAH?” 🙂 My mom didn’t answer and shied away! Those were my early days of investigations about GOD. No one told me that it was in me and I’m a piece of it. The Divine is within me.
We are taught that the supreme all-mighty, the Divine is separate from us. And that we are little to nothing to be near it or with it. This is the practice done in many educational systems on this planet. We are fed by unnecessary information, which creates a huge gap and separation within ourselves and others. Such unhealthy practice creates depression, boredom, weakness, apathy, fear, struggle, and war in humanity.
The Sad Tree
In a quiet countryside, there was a dazzling garden with fig, plum, avocado, and pomegranate trees. It had colorful daisies, orchids, lilies, and roses. All was joyful in this garden, except for one tree. This tree was very sad. Its problem was it didn’t know who it was!
Other trees tried to give advice to the sad tree telling him that he needed to be attentive and be conscientious and focused if he did so, he would have figs and plums. The orchids would say to the sad tree do not listen to the fig trees. It is hard to make figs, why don’t you try to focus and make orchids?
The sad tree would try to be what his friends suggested. Every time he tries, he fails, and then becomes so disappointed. One day a wise owl nested on the sad tree and noticed its grief. The owl asked the tree why he was upset, the tree explained its burdens.
The owl said to the tree “Your problems are similar to humans. Here is my advice do not build your life upon what others want you to be. Just be who you are, know yourself, allow it to be and listen to what your inside says.”
Listen To Your Inner Voice!
The tree asked himself “How can I know myself?”, “What is best for me?”, “What does my inner voice want to say to me?”, “What should I do & be to know myself?” The tree began asking questions over and over, this made his heart to open. He began to hear his inner voice telling him:
“You are not a fig tree to make fig fruits, and you are not an orchid flower to make orchids!” , “You are a redwood, and your call is to grow tall beautifully. You are meant to be a nest for many birds, a house for squirrels, a shade for people and a landscape for this area.”
The tree gained his power. It grew magnificently, and this way the garden was wholly happy!
How many of us are redwoods?
How many of us are redwoods who try to be fig trees? How many of us are redwoods who can’t allow themselves to be who they are meant to be? You are in this life to find your destiny and then accomplish it. You are here to follow your bliss.
Follow your bliss.
― Joseph Campbell
If you do follow your bliss,
you put yourself on a kind of track
that has been there all the while waiting for you,
and the life you ought to be living
is the one you are living.
When you can see that,
you begin to meet people
who are in the field of your bliss,
and they open the doors to you.
I say, follow your bliss and don’t be afraid,
and doors will open
where you didn’t know they were going to be.
If you follow your bliss,
doors will open for you that wouldn’t have opened for anyone else.”
You are here to remember who you are as an infinite being who is having a physical limited experience. You are a point of attention that can be myopic or vast within an infinite stream of consciousness, and you are a point of attention in that same consciousness that observes reality from a different point of view.
WHO AM I REALLY?
You are a living medium between the worlds. Do not allow anyone or anything to block you from your essence. Do not permit anyone to dictate to you how and what to be! Why? Because you are the infinite itself.
I hope you enjoy reading this post. I look forward to hearing your comments & suggestions.
Love & Gratitude