The Wind is Our Ally

A tendril falls in front of her face as she moves the broom around the bench. Not even from the corner of her eye does the shimmering ahead peek in. And then in the next instant, the breeze settles the sand again.

It's particularly difficult to ensure the sand is level around the bench because there are edges of the iron legs to navigate around. The fine particles of sand are spread unevenly like snow drifts. She smoothes the piles into even flat sheets. The brush strokes are measured, only frantic when the drifts rise like dancing ghosts and her hard work begins all over.

We watch her every motion: sometimes the broom is heavy, sometimes light, sometimes she bends, sometimes straightens, sometimes she circles around her work, sometimes she zigzags, sometimes following a fine lace pattern on an imaginary hem.

The witness is not the Mystery.

One day she wearies. She comes to rest, propping her broom against the bench.

The wind does the rest.

The wind cradles every speck of sand. Then with a gentle breath, the burnished gold buried under millimeters of grain is revealed at least as far as where horizons tumble over ledges.

Even when she awakes refreshed, and even should she pick up the broom from time to time absentmindedly to rearrange a few particles of sand, she will always know the ground she walks on.

[A related story continues here. And a hint to the metaphorical piece: The broom and action of brooming is the habituated ego-mind and its thought-streams.]

Comments

[Ross Forman]

On the latest newsletter on the website Eckhart Tolle said that "we are running out of time." He said that such a viewpoint would be seen as negative from the point of view of ego but that it was positive from the perspecive that more people would be driven toward spiritual awakening. He also said that many people would not need to read his new book "A New Earth" because they had gained awakening from "The Power of Now" but that some may still need to read his new book. This is a bit much for me, I'm looking around for all these people who have expereinced spiritual awakening, I know I'm not one of them. I have some confidence but such words make me feel as though I have fallen behind. I'm seeking peace but am I not seeking hard enough?