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CONSCIOUSNESS CAFÉ
Awareness Play
"Between what is said and not meant, and what is meant and not said, most love is lost" Khalil Gibran
Honesty is the test of love, for fearless love has the strength to take and to give honesty. It is not unusual on the spiritual path to take things too seriously. But a path is only a path, and there is no affront to oneself or to others, in dropping it if that is what your heart tells you. All paths are the same: they lead nowhere; but some have a heart, and some don't. Some make you strong on a joyful journey; and others weaken you.
Welcome in this light-hearted, stimulating space where friends and strangers come together online for energising, thought-provoking encounters. Inspired by the works of Hellinger, Jung, Rogers, Moreno, Perls, Lowen and other innovating scholars of consciousness, the meeting is an opportunity to enter the
unexpected, the delightful, the liberating real.
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The old monk sat by the side of the road. With his eyes closed, his legs crossed and his hands folded in his lap, he sat. In deep meditation, he sat.
Suddenly his zazen was interrupted by the harsh and demanding voice of a samurai warrior. "Old man! Can you teach me about heaven and hell!"
At first, as though he had not heard, there was no perceptible response from the monk. But gradually he began to open his eyes, the faintest hint of a smile playing around the corners of his mouth as the samurai stood there, waiting impatiently, growing more and more agitated with each passing second.
"You wish to know the secrets of heaven and hell?" replied the monk at last. "You who are so unkempt. You whose hands and feet are covered with dirt. You whose hair is uncombed, whose breath is foul? You whose sword is all rusty and neglected. You who are ugly and whose mother dresses you funny. You would ask me of heaven and hell?"
The samurai uttered a vile curse. He drew his sword and raised it high above his head. His face turned to crimson and the veins on his neck stood out in bold relief as he prepared to sever the monk's head from its shoulders.
"That is hell," said the old monk gently, just as the sword began its descent.
In that fraction of a second, the samurai was overcome with amazement, awe, recognition and compassion for this gentle being who had dared to risk his very life to give him such a teaching. He stopped his sword in mid-flight and his eyes filled with grateful tears.
"And that," said the monk, "is heaven." |
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