The Guardian Angel

The angel had been bound to earth for hundreds of years, yet the angel lived in patience where time did not exist. For eons the angel had been speaking to humans, whispering words of love and encouragement into their ears. Most of the time, no one heard, although now and then the angel saw in someone's eyes a glimmer of understanding.

This angel was presently guarding a small child whose skin was white as snow, though it was no fairy tale, for the child had been sick with some earthly disease for a long time. The child lay in a bed, blending into white sheets, surrounded by family members who were trying not to cry. And the child, who knew what courage was, whispered, “It's okay to cry because I am going away.”

And the angel smiled and wrapped its love around the boy and touched the hearts of his parents, grandparents, and little brothers. As the angel touched their hearts, it knew the anguish in those hearts. The angel could have moved away, spared itself this pain, but it only moved closer, giving off its strength. 

The child's father forgot not to cry. Tears fell down his unshaven face. The little boy wanted to reach up and touch that face one last time, but he had no strength. Sensing this, the unseen angel helped the boy raise his arm. As the child touched his father's scratchy wet face one last time, father and son felt a great peace, for the truth of tears is better than the pretense of smiles.

Then the mother cradled her child in her arms. The grandparents cradled their own children, this mother and father. And the angel of God bound them all together with its love and spoke to the child, saying, “It is time.” The child heard a voice like bells and looked upon the face of the angel for the first time. The family could not see the angel, but they saw the years of pain and fighting the disease fade away as the child's face began to glow.

“I will show you,” smiled the angel, forgetting everything now except the child. “Look!” The angel pointed to the Light. Seeing the Light, the boy breathed a last sigh and closed his eyes in peace. 

The angel departed with the soul essence of the child, guiding him to the Light. And the family was not alone. The room was alive with angels, embracing the family, whispering words of love, holding their sorrow, taking what pain they could unto themselves.

As the angel guided the child to the Light, the angel felt the power of the Light, and longed to return to the Light, but its task was upon earth. The angel did not linger in pain or longing. It lovingly watched the boy merge into the Light, then turned and made its way back to earth.

The angel did not stop to ask why, did not hesitate, did not question the way of the world or of God. It simply went on to its next task. It was just in time to catch a young teenager as she fell from a speeding car whose door had become unlatched. The girl would later tell a wondrous story of a Being of Light that caught her in its arms, saving her from the hard pavement of the road. And the angel was already gone, onto its next task, fully present in the moment.

THAT SINKING FEELING...

We all know that sinking feeling, don't we? You know — that feeling in the pit of your stomach — or pain in your heart — 

which happens when you get that piece of mail from some bureaucratic  authority, or the government, or maybe a credit card ...

or that email that says your google account has been suspended (that just happened to me ... it was their mistake, but I still had to spend time fixing it)

the stock market is crashing (if you happen to have invested in it) ...

you are rejected for a job, abandoned by a partner, you miss your train

you lose your mobile phone ... you spill your coffee ...

YOU are not that feeling. NOT that fear. NOT that despair. NOT that anxiety. NOT that reaction. NOT that ego Neti! Neti!

Dearest One, 

Lovely Light of God, 

Do NOT give the outer world permission to control you.

meditation on taking yourself as lightly as angels do

Is there anyone in your life who says “mean” things to you, “pushes your buttons,”? If so, you are invited to visualize that person standing before you right now, saying the things that usually upset you.

Where does that person’s power over you—the power to make you feel bad—come from? Can you see that you are the one who gives power to that person’s words? You are the one who gives that person power over your state of being.

Observe your breathing. Observe your thoughts and your emotions. Do you really see the person—or do you see your thoughts about the person?

Imagine yourself fully involved in the drama, the way you sometimes are with this person. Give yourself the starring role. Put yourself at center stage—and watch the drama unfold . . . 

The person slings arrows at you in the form of words. You glare and open your mouth to shoot an arrow back—when suddenly—you hear laughter emanating from somewhere. You stop, mouth still open, and look around you.  

You gaze in amazement! You are surrounded by angels. An audience of angels. Laughing angels. Why not? Angels know you are not the drama you take yourself to be.

You look back at your friend/enemy and realize that he (or she) cannot see the angels. He hurls another insult at you. It hits you square in the solar plexus and instantly you feel heavy and serious again. You glance sideways at the angels. They are still laughing! You scowl indignantly. How can anyone laugh at a time like this?

You feel stress and tension building in your shoulders and in the room. You scowl harder. The harder you scowl, the harder the angels laugh. Soon the angels are rolling on the floor, bubbling over with angelic laughter. You gaze with wonder at the laughing angels. You see love beaming from their eyes. You see endless patience. You see light. 

You turn to the person you have been arguing with. You are astonished to see that he looks just like you! You move your hand and he moves his. You scowl and he scowls. As you gaze at this person who looks like you, he begins to metamorphose right before your eyes... 

He is turning green—lime-green! He is turning into jello. Before your astonished eyes, he turns into lime-green jello, talking, gesturing, and scowling—a quivering sparkling blob of lime-green jello, translucent, that the light shines through—like a halo!

You look down at your own body. It has also become a blob of lime-green jello, translucent, that the light shines through—like a halo!

You peek at the angels. They are standing still and serene. They encompass you in a circle of light. Smiles quiver on their faces. Suddenly you understand their laughter. You turn your attention back to the blob of jello wobbling before you, talking very seriously, unaware of the angels. All you see is light shining like a halo through sparkling lime-green jello.

You can breathe again! You can take a deep breath of fresh air and let it go. You see what the angels have always seen—you are free! You have always been free. The light shines, radiates, and sparkles around you. The light shines, radiates, and sparkles around the other person.

 Words continue to come out of his mouth, only now everything is moving in slow motion. You can see each word. You can grasp each word and hold onto it, if you like. Or you can let the words go, let them flow into the atmosphere, and dissolve somewhere in space. You are that free!

You smile upon the person. You breathe deeply. You are that free! You always have been. You turn toward the angels. You wink at these heavenly messengers. The angels dissolve into laughter. Or maybe jello—jello of all colors—strawberry, lime, grape, and cherry, translucent, that the light shines through, like a halo!

With love, light, and laughter,

your teacher & the angels

The Great Way

Hsin Hsin Ming

Verses on the Faith Mind
by Chien-chih Seng-ts'an 
Third Zen Patriarch [606AD] 

Translated by Richard B. Clarke

The Great Way is not difficult
for those who have no preferences.

When love and hate are both absent
everything becomes clear and undisguised.
Make the smallest distinction, however,
and heaven and earth are set infinitely apart.

If you wish to see the truth
then hold no opinions for or against anything.
To set up what you like against what you dislike
is the disease of the mind.

When the deep meaning of things is not understood
the mind's essential peace is disturbed to no avail.

The Way is perfect like vast space
where nothing is lacking and nothing is in excess.
Indeed, it is due to our choosing to accept or reject
that we do not see the true nature of things.
Be serene in the oneness of things
and such erroneous views will disappear by themselves.

When you try to stop activity to achieve passivity
your very effort fills you with activity.
As long as you remain in one extreme or the other,
you will never know Oneness.

Those who do not live in the single Way
fail in both activity and passivity,
assertion and denial.
To deny the reality of things is to miss their reality;
to assert the emptiness of things
is to miss their reality.

The more you talk and think about it,
the further astray you wander from the truth.
Stop talking and thinking
and there is nothing you will not be able to know.

To return to the root is to find the meaning,
but to pursue appearances is to miss the source.
At the moment of inner enlightenment,
there is a going beyond appearance and emptiness.
The changes that appear to occur in the empty world
we call real only because of our ignorance.
Do not search for the truth;
only cease to cherish opinions.

Do not remain in the dualistic state;
avoid such pursuits carefully.
If there is even a trace
of this and that, of right and wrong,
the Mind-essence will be lost in confusion.
Although all dualities come from the One,
do not be attached even to this One.

When the mind exists undisturbed in the Way,
nothing in the world can offend, 
and when a thing can no longer offend,
it ceases to exist in the old way.

When no discriminating thoughts arise,
the old mind ceases to exist.
When thought objects vanish,
the thinking-subject vanishes,
and when the mind vanishes, objects vanish.

Things are objects because there is a subject or mind;
and the mind is a subject because there are objects.
Understand the relativity of these two
and the basic reality: the unity of emptiness.
In this Emptiness the two are indistinguishable
and each contains in itself the whole world.
If you do not discriminate between coarse and fine
you will not be tempted to prejudice and opinion.

To live in the Great Way
is neither easy nor difficult.
But those with limited views
are fearful and irresolute;
the faster they hurry, the slower they go.

Clinging cannot be limited;
even to be attached to the idea of enlightenment
is to go astray.
Just let things be in their own way
and there will be neither coming nor going.

Obey the nature of things
and you will walk freely and undisturbed.
When thought is in bondage the truth is hidden,
for everything is murky and unclear.
The burdensome practice of judging
brings annoyance and weariness.
What benefit can be derived
from distinctions and separations?

If you wish to move in the One Way
do not dislike even the world of senses and ideas.
Indeed, to accept them fully
is identical with true Enlightenment.

The wise man strives to no goals
but the foolish man fetters himself.
There is one Dharma, not many;
distinctions arise from the clinging needs of the ignorant.
To seek Mind with discriminating mind
is the greatest of all mistakes.

Rest and unrest derive from illusion;
with enlightenment there is no liking and disliking.
All dualities come from ignorant inference.
They are like dreams of flowers in air:
foolish to try to grasp them.
Gain and loss, right and wrong;
such thoughts must finally be abolished at once.

If the eye never sleeps,
all dreams will naturally cease.
If the mind makes no discriminations,
the ten thousand things
are as they are, of single essence.

To understand the mystery of this One-essence
is to be released from all entanglements.
When all things are seen equally
the timeless Self-essence is reached.
No comparisons or analogies are possible
in this causeless, relationless state.
Consider motion in stillness
and stillness in motion;
both movement and stillness disappear.
When such dualities cease to exist
Oneness itself cannot exist.
To this ultimate finality
no law or description applies.

For the unified mind in accord with the Way
all self-centered striving ceases.
Doubts and irresolutions vanish
and life in true faith is possible.

With a single stroke we are freed from bondage;
nothing clings to us and we hold to nothing.
All is empty, clear, self-illuminating,
with no exertion of the mind's power.
Here thought, feeling, knowledge, and imagination are of no value.
In this world of Suchness
there is neither self nor other-than-self.

To come directly into harmony with this reality
just simply say when doubt arises, "Not two."
In this "not two" nothing is separate,
nothing is excluded.
No matter when or where,
enlightenment means entering this truth.
And this truth is beyond extension or diminution in time or space;
in it a single thought is ten thousand years.

Emptiness here, Emptiness there,
but the infinite universe stands always before your eyes.

Infinitely large and infinitely small;
no difference, for definitions have vanished
and no boundaries are seen.
So too with Being and non-Being.
Waste no time in doubts and arguments
that have nothing to do with this.

One thing, all things;
move among and intermingle,
without distinction.
To live in this realization
is to be without anxiety about nonperfection.
To live in this faith is the road to nonduality,
because the nondual is one with the trusting mind.

Words!
The Way is beyond language,
for in it there is

no yesterday

no tomorrow.

A Grandmother Story

This event, which is now a story, really happened. You can decide for yourself if it is true. There are only two characters in this story. One of them happens to be a Wise Woman, although no one ever thought of her in this way when she was alive. 

There was this very old grandmother who was on her deathbed. Before she died, she called one of her granddaughters to her. She had thirteen grandchildren but she only called this one. The grandmother had been an ordinary grandmother, or so the granddaughter thought. The grandmother looked into her granddaughter’s cool green eyes with her own eyes which burned like fire in her shriveled face and whispered to her, “Little girl, I want to tell you three things.” 

The granddaughter, who was around twenty at the time, nodded respectfully, and leaned forward to listen. This is what the grandmother told her, “All there is IS. The will of God is all there is. You do not exist.”

The angels will leave you these words to ponder, the way the wise grandmother left them for her granddaughter to ponder through the years when the grandmother would no longer be walking upon the face of the earth.

The Secret of Life

Life is just a bowl of cherries.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9kAd8Mygpw

This guy was looking for the secret of life. He had been looking for the secret of life for fifteen or twenty years. His search finally led him to India. He traveled all around India, asking everyone he met for the secret of life. 

Finally, he was directed to the Himalayas where he spent another year or so, climbing and searching and asking his question. Everywhere he went, no one knew the answer. Then he began to hear rumblings about an ancient teacher, who was rumored to know the secret of life.

One day, after a grueling climb, he reached the mouth of a small cave and—lo and behold! There sat the very man he had heard about!  

The old sage fixed him with a piercing gaze, and said, “Ah, you have come at last, my son. What can I do for you?”  

The guy felt so elated! He knew he had found the guru who was going to give him the answer he had been seeking for so long. So he asked him the question he had been asking everyone, “What is the secret of life?” 

The wise all-knowing guru squinted his eyes, and the guy was sure he saw a spark of light emanate from them. He waited with bated breath—at last the secret would be his!

The guru stretched, gave a big yawn, and then relaxed with a long sigh. A serene smile danced across his face and his eyes twinkled as he replied, “Life is just a bowl of cherries.” 

The seeker gasped, “What! I’ve been traveling for twenty-five years all over the world, seeking the meaning of life. I climbed all the way up this mountain just to find you, and you tell me life is just a bowl of cherries!” 

The ancient sage blinked his eyes, “You mean, it isn’t?”