Journey to Enlightenment Part 01

SR No.: 006996
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Chitrabhanu, Chetana Catherine Florida, Nirmala Hanke, Raksha Penni Helsene
Publisher: Create Space
Publication Year: 2008
Total Pages: 142
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 4 MB

Page 78

Spring 1991: Our Jaina Heritage: Transforming and Evolving
Friends. Without the living divinity within us, neither human being nor life would exist. Because of the divinity within us, we move, think, love, give and receive. Do not be misled by what you see in the world around you, the passing show with its violence, commercialism, greed for possessions, and lust for power. We are the conscious Life Energy, evolving as we transform ourselves, and this Jaina heritage is our wealth and greatness.
For this transformation into Self-Realization, we need meditation. In meditation, we experience and recognize our great heritage and divinity. The divinity within each of us is the Creative Force, which we realize. Each of us must commit ourselves to living as a source of love, light and creativity. Meditation takes us beyond mind, beyond words, beyond ego. In meditation, the confining shell of the ego is split. When the destructive and negative shell of the ego is cast off, our soul shines forth with dazzling brilliance.
When will the ego shatter? When we enter deep within the core of our being. The kernel of the coconut and its sweet milk can be had only when we break its outer shell. Self-centered love belongs to the ego, but love of all living beings belongs to the real Self. When we go beyond the ego, the essence emerges in freedom, sensing a larger capacity to experience life as it is.
Also, in meditation we realize that the glory of the earth includes almost limitless varieties of plants and trees, all of which start from tiny seeds. We share this richness of diversity; this divinity in many forms, each individually unique. The seed is nourished by the dark earth, which is broken up by earthworms, watered by rain, warmed by the sun, cooled by the gentle touch of the night. The seed splits its shell, and a form of life emerges which begins to expand and actualize its potential, for behind the maturation of the seed, there is a benign harmony in the cycle of its flowering and bearing fruit and its decay - only to grow again. The inter-relatedness of seed, earth, rain and sun, of people who eat the fruit and of all that lives on the earth is the inter-relatedness of one with all. Without this interrelatedness, this harmony of the whole, we would not be here. We not only eat the fruit of the tree, we rest in its shade, and we also enjoy its beauty, by being the enjoyer and the enjoyed.
Two thousand and five hundred years ago, Mahavir said, “Since you receive so much more than any other form of life, it is inevitable that you should want to give more.” We not only have senses that open the whole expanse of the universe to us, but we also have articulate language, the capacity for abstract thinking, and the freedom to choose and to move ourselves in the forward direction. When we recognize the forward direction, we confront ourselves with: "Who am I?” Why am I here? What is the meaning of life?” Circumstances have changed throughout civilization and there is no clear verbal answer. If there were, we would have a beautiful statement and we would not have to keep searching. For the answer, there is no vocabulary, no verbal expression. We find it in the silence of meditation.
On the Wings of Light and Love - 79