I had the honor of seeing a living Master from a front row seat this past Sunday. She knew of no spiritual classics, and had no spiritual resume when she awoke. "I discovered that when I believed my thoughts, I suffered, but that when I didn't believe them, I didn't suffer, and that this is true for every human being... I found a joy within me that has never disappeared, not for a single moment. That joy is in everyone, always."
She had been a severely depressed businesswoman and mother living in Barstow, California. For the last two years before she "woke up to reality" she was often unable to leave her bedroom due to the spiralling thoughts of paranoia, self-loathing, and rage.
When people starting appearing at her door in 1986 after her awakening, they'd often bow and say "Namaste." She'd never heard the Hindu term "namaste"so she says, "I was thrilled that the people coming to my door were so wise." She believed they were saying, "no mistake."
Ah, yes, no mistake! No mistakes!
This is destined to be my favorite book of 2007. And seeing how it's February - I look forward to being wrong, because that would be one helluva book that'd top this one.
Her husband Stephen Mitchell writes in the preface: "In many chapters of the Tao Te Ching, Lao-Tzu describes himself through a figure called "the Master," the mature human being who has gone beyond wisdom and holiness to a world-including world-redeeming sanity. There's nothing mystical or lofty about the Master. He (or she) is simply someone who knows the difference between reality and his thoughts about reality. He may be a mechanic or a fifth-grade teacher or the president of a bank or a homeless person on the streets. He is just like everyone else, except that he no longer believes that in this moment things should be different than they are. Therefore in all circumstances he remains at ease in the world, is efficient without the slightest effort, keeps his lightness of heart whatever happens, and, without intending to, acts with kindness toward himself and everyone else. He is who you are once you meet your mind with understanding."
On page 256, Byron Katie says: "At the beginning, in 1986, I felt a lot of surprise that people were confused at what I was trying to express, that they believed that the separations they saw were real. This went on for about a year. I would cry a lot. It was like a dying. The tears were tears of amazement that people didn't understand that all suffering is imagined. I was moved by their innocence. It was like watching babies hurting themselves, like watching the innocent cut themselves with knives, with no possibility that they could stop. I didn't dare say, "This is unnecessary," because that would have ben just another dagger in them.
And always the tears were tears of wonder and gratitude. I remember the first time someone brought me a cup of tea, I just melted with the splendor of it all. I had never seen a cup of tea before. I didn't know that we did that here. The man poured the tea, and my eyes began to overflow like the tea he was pouring. It was so beautiful, and there was such generosity in it. I felt so much love that I could only die into it, and just keep dying. There was no way to contain it, it was so huge. The tea poured in, and act of pure kindness, and the tears poured out of me in the same measure, received and pouring back, giving back to itself, not to anyone or from anyone. And no one could understand why I was sobbing. They all thought I was sad. There was no way I could explain how moved I was, and that it was this gratitude that was pouring out of me.
The Master has given up helping because she knows that there is no one to help. And since she loves and understands her own nature, she realizes that in every action she is serving herself and sitting at her own feet. So there is nothing she gives that she doesn't receive in the same motion, as the same internal experience. Even when she appears not to give, that is what she is giving. The Master is the woman who dented your car, the man who stepped in front of you on line at the supermarket, the old friend who accused you of being selfish and unkind. Do you love the Master yet? There's no peace until you do. This is your work, the only work, the work of the Master." - Byron Katie, A Thousand Names for Joy: Living in Harmony with the Way Things Are
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