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The Flame in the Candle
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knowledge and insights to sustain us when we are in a low state. We must remember them, call them forth, and put them to use.
Why don't we use our knowledge? Because intellectual information and emotional feeling work in different directions. For example, intellectually we know that anyone who comes into our life is eventually going to go. We are aware that all are on a journey, coming and going, but when that event happens in our life, how do we take it? Intellectually we understand, but emotionally what is our reaction? Meditation helps us bring that knowledge into our feeling. Experiencing our feeling, we change our perception. Changing our perception, we become ready to meet any challenge. Nothing comes as a shock or a surprise. Understanding has been absorbed into our experience.
The wise person lives in the world, but not of it. He lives with complete awareness. There is a zen story which illustrates this. Once there was a famous swordsman who was on his deathbed when his son asked him, “What is your last wish, father?”
His father answered, “Oh, Matajura, my son, I had a dream to see you become the greatest of swordsmen, but I failed.”
Matajura told him, “And I also wanted to become that, but the right teacher could not be found, and you also had no time to teach me.”
Then his father said, “This wish is so strong that I am going to live three more years to see that it is fulfilled. Though I am on my deathbed, I shall not die.”
So his son asked, “Who shall be my teacher?” His father sent him to Banzo, who was known to be the master at that time.
The boy went to Banzo and bowed and said, “I want
