Awakened Yet Fast Asleep
All of us are awake, but in some respects still fast asleep. Our
wakefulness has not reached a stage of complete awareness – we are in a state
of limbo, awakened from the world of animals but fast asleep in the world of
Gods.
We are in a transitory period. We have not yet reached the state of
awareness – we are on the way. The past is left behind and the future is not
attained yet. Hence the agony, the anguish: we are torn apart. The past pulls us
back. To be an animal again seems to be pleasant, and it is, because that does
not have the agony, anguish, and anxiety we feel from our past and worry about
the future.
The peace, the calm, the collectedness of the animal is lost. The animal
is happy because it is unaware - unaware of death, unaware of the problems of
life. The animal is happy because there is no consciousness. Consciousness
first brings pain, because suddenly we become aware of a thousand and one
problems facing us. We have to encounter them, solve them or dissolve them. All
peace disappears.
Just a little consciousness is enough to be aware of pain. But much more
awareness is needed, much more consciousness is needed, to be aware of the
deeper realms of our inner kingdom. Humans are in a kind of drunkenness: awake
and yet not awake. We see a little bit, and yet everything seems to be dark,
just shadows moving in the dark are felt. But nothing is absolutely clear;
there is no clarity, no transparency, no light.
This is our state. And we cannot go back because there is no possibility
of going back. We try hard to go back - through sex, through food, through
alcohol, through drugs -we try somehow to drown this little bit of
consciousness that has arisen within us. But it comes back again and again,
because whatsoever has been learnt has been learnt for ever - it cannot be
unlearnt.
It has happened in our being. Now there is no way to discard it. We must
live with it. The only possibility is to move ahead, to grow more into
awareness: if it has brought pain, then go deep into pain, but become more and
more aware. Use pain as an object of awareness, as an object of meditation.
We become sad - be aware. Let sadness become our meditation. We become
angry - be aware. We are in love - be aware. Use all possibilities, all
opportunities to be more and more aware. Slowly and surely, the momentum
gathers, and one day something explodes within us. That explosion we know as
the blooming of the thousand petalled lotus.
Let us awaken fully and live in complete awareness, in a continuous
state of bliss and joy, totally in the here and now.
No comments:
Post a Comment