Twelve Facets of Reality

Author(s): Chitrabhanu
Publisher: New York Dodd Made & Company

Page 53

Liberation from the Cycle of Birth and Death 31
In this way, you slowly free yourself from identifying with the ups and downs of samsara. The wheel is always moving smoothly in order to bring change. With your awareness, you observe how it is moving purposefully to bring something beautiful, something fresh for you. The motion of the wheel is giving you a challenge. Without change, life becomes stagnant. If there is no test, there is no progress.
By identifying with the changeless beneath all the changes, you are transcending them. In this way, you experience the purpose of samsara-to transform yourself from lower to higher, and ultimately to reach moksha, complete freedom from the cycle of birth and death.
In meditating on this bhavana, we observe our whole cycle. We say, "When I was born, my mother was in pain, crying. Then she saw my face and was happy. The pain was gone." What the mother suffered for nine months was gone in one minute. At the same time, we look at those close to us in our lives-a brother, sister, parent, or partner-and see that some have gone and some are still here. The dearest people whom we love and who love us come and go. They don't remain permanently. The people who hate and are hated also come and go. This is the Ferris wheel; this is the process.
The reflection continues in this way: "Why do I only think of others? I also will go. I will move on, and when I do, I will separate from others as others have separated from me. So why am I upset when others depart? I too will depart. Perhaps I don't think of that because of the mental fright it causes."
But the aspirant is not frightened. His mind is not shattered at the prospect of his own departure. Why? Because he or she is completely convinced that what is