Awaken and Roar!

Once upon a time
A washer man was at the river
His donkeys laden with wash
When a pregnant lioness came to drink.
A hunter shot the lioness,
Took the hide
The washer man took the cub
Raising him as a donkey.
Some time later
When the cub had grown
The washer man, his herd
Were at the river washing
When along came a hunting lion
Who could not believe his eyes
A tame lion eating grass
Just like a donkey!
So the hunter lion charged
The washer mans’ herd
And then jumped the tame one
Please Mr. Lion do not kill me!
Cried the terrified tame one
You are a lion said the hunter
No I’m a donkey said the other
The hunter took the tame one
To the river to show him
See, you are a lion.
We are alike! Now roar!
And the tame lion roared
Realizing his true nature
In that very instant.
It is as simple as that
No ritual is necessary
No program is required.
Decide in this moment to
Awaken and Roar!
Wake up to your true nature. Now!

Adapted as a poem from a story told
by H.W.L. Poonja, in his book Wake Up and Roar

The Search and the Struggle

After the spiritual search has begun, there will come a time when the destination feels so close you can touch it. This may go on for some time.

I characterize it as a vague feeling of frustration. It comes from an inability to solve what seems like a riddle in a language you don’t understand. It is an uncomfortable feeling that you want to stop, but may represent progress.

I liken this to a vibration or energy that builds without an avenue for release. It is like the feeling you get when you forget a name or are reaching for the right word. It is just beneath the surface.
Can this be the personality fighting your pursuit of true nature? Does the personality foresee its own decline and the resulting rise of the true nature?

I call this the struggle within. It is a sign of progress toward the destination. It signals a building realization of truth versus perspective, of true nature versus personality.

Life’s Answers

Some look to the horizon
The liminal zone
Seeking, searching for hope.
Only to find fortune has
Moved to a new distance.
And we are back
To a similar place
Without the reward.
This treasure is found
In a much closer place,
Right here where we started
Not far, but near
Inside, within.

The Simple Truth

Does it make any sense to you that your true nature would be hard to find? Does it make any sense that you would need to ask some other person, see a miraculous display, or think a fabulous thought?

Isn’t your true nature your inner knowing? Isn’t it the precious gift that you received with your auspicious human birth? Do you really need to see a sign, dream a dream, or travel to some exotic place?

Is your inner spirit far away? Is this the search for a complexity beyond a complexity or a riddle within a riddle? Does any of that make any sense?

The simple truth is that your true nature is just beneath the surface of who you think you are, waiting patiently for you to find your way home.


Simple Is

As simple as it is
No simpler please
That is what we seek
For the ego loves the puzzle
The master of complexity
A storyteller, who
Lives from the crowd’s reply
To stoke the ego’s fire
But this is just the magician
Hard at work again
Pulling the rabbit out
Good for a laugh
Part of the distraction
The illusion of it all
If we only knew that
The true reward is
The simplicity found inside.

Our Words

The use of language is part of our socialization. While words are a powerful way of communication, they can be terribly flawed in their effect. How we use words, how we choose words and how we interpret other’s words is part of our personality.

Whether we misspeak, are misheard or misinterpreted our words are limited in their ability to communicate our truth. Our words are the equivalent of pointing a stick in the direction we are going.

Then there are the words not spoken. Whether we are trying to be polite, have a limited vocabulary, or have made faulty assumptions, the words not spoken are equally dangerous or informative. We don’t typically factor in these considerations. We say something and fully expect our true intentions to be immediately understood. Of course this is not necessarily the case.

This makes speaking the truth particularly difficult. If our true nature does not think in words, if words arise from the ego, how is it possible to speak the truth? If true nature were to work through ego, then an ego translation of true nature would be possible. Of course, true nature would have to be particularly robust in order to overcome the many years of living in ego.

This is why we see inconsistencies even in some of our most enlightened writers. We must be forgiving when their ego breaks through. For in this case, the ego is interpreting true nature, acting as a translator of sorts.

Desire

Desire originates in the acquired mind of personality. Desire has an irresistible nature, and for some of us, is the most difficult challenge in achieving our true nature. Within our egoic mind, the yearnings of desire are based on the false belief that satisfaction of a desire leads to happiness, only to find that it satisfies nothing and only leads to the next desire.

Desire is much like unrequited love. It leads us nowhere and is a figment of our egoic imagination. Watching desire rise and fall without acting, forms the starting line to our true nature.

The End of Desire

The end of desire is
The end of a life lived in illusion
The end of jealousy, insecurity and fear
For desire leads us only
To the next desire
The endless search for fulfillment
While that treasure can only
Be found within.

What is Grace?

I once was very confused by this word. I knew it was an important word, I knew it was a good word. Yet, what exactly was grace? There are those who use it to denote a period of time as in a “grace period for payment”. Others use it to denote beauty as in a “graceful dancer”. And there is the song “Amazing Grace”. All I have ever remembered about that song is “who saved a wretch like me.”

I now understand why it was so difficult. Grace is a location, captivating an entire landscape of words. No one word really does it justice. Grace is beauty, peace, love, kindness, forgiveness, benevolence and much more. Most importantly, grace is who we really are, it is our true nature.