Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Awakening

After rain comes sunshine. After sunshine comes rain. After a long hard winter comes spring and summer and after months of rain and strong winds comes a wonderful weekend by the lake, then three more weeks of rain and cold winds.

Some people experience years and years of incredible hardships in terrible places. This is how life works. Hardship, misery and pain are a part of most people’s lives. Peace and harmony are usually quite rare experiences. Sometimes we are up and sometimes we are down. Sometimes we are stressed out and sometimes we are relaxed.

Spiritual awakening, I believe, is not like moving to a luxury bungalow in Hawaii with pleasant summer nights all year around surrounded by good looking and smiling celebrities, discussing the Dao, walking barefoot and swimming with dolphins. To wake up and to feel good is not the same thing.

Jesus suffered on the cross, Krishnamurti suffered from severe headaches and Osho suffered from asthma.

To wake up, I believe, is to be wherever we are, to feel whatever we feel and think whatever we think, doing what we have to do and being aware of what’s going on in the world.

Spiritual sleep is like living in Beverly Hills, selfish, haughty and drugged, attending charity parties and spiritual workshops or like living in a slum, spending all free time drinking, quarreling, complaining and watching crap on TV.