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84 Twelve Facets of Reality
"I want to be steady, not fickle. I want to stop this constant movement to and fro. Let me be with myself so that I will know how to be comfortable with others."
In this way, you see life as an inner laboratory. You put yourself on the test and ask yourself penetrating questions. "Am I comfortable with myself? Do I go to others to make them happy, or do I go in order to avoid myself?" If you are traveling here and there to escape yourself, then you are taking that uncomfortable feeling with you. Wherever you go, you are creating discomfort in those relationships. Try as you may to find a haven of safety away from yourself, you cannot escape your own restless feeling. The most difficult thing is this: to be comfortable with one's own Self in order to be comfortable with all.
Once a person kept to himself, meditating in silence. Three friends observed him and joked about him. "What is he doing?" they said, laughing. "He sits all day and does nothing. We can do that easily."
When the meditator heard this, he asked, “Do you think it is easy to be, just to be?"
"Yes," one friend answered, "you have nothing to do. I have so many responsibilities—to go to work, pay my rent, take care of my house. If you would take my place, I would gladly sit here like you."
"Very well," agreed the meditator. "I will take care of providing you with food. I will pay your rent and do everything that you usually do. It will be one month's program. What you have to do is to be with yourself."
The friend replied, "Oh, that will be easy. But what do I have to do in exchange?"
"Nothing," answered the meditator. "There is nothing to do, just to be. You will remain in this beautiful bungalow, and I will give you this word, So-hum, to recite."
