Transcript
Perhaps the best news that an individual can be told – as long as that individual aspires to something higher in their life – is that there's really only one thing that ever comes between him or her and the kind of happiness, strength, confidence that they're looking for. One thing and one thing only. Which is the same as saying there's really only one thing that keeps us running in the circles that we do, in the conflict that we experience. And here's the one thing that, as far as I'm concerned, is the best spiritual news an individual can ever hear if they have ears to hear it: the only trouble that any of us have with others, with this life of ours, is what we have yet to understand about ourselves. It's so simple as to be completely dismissed by the mind that is convinced that there's so much to think about and to plan and to read and acquire, when really the truth is very different than that. Because another truth along the same lines is that the only thing we ever run into at any given moment, no matter how distinctly it seems to be different than that, the only thing we run into is ourselves. Now, on one hand, part of us would celebrate something like that because it means, if we grasp its significance, it means I don't have to worry about what you're doing. It means my concern is not whether the world is wobbling and about to flip-flop onto its back. It means that I have a single solitary primary concern with my moment-to-moment relationship with life. And that is exactly what my concern is. My being present enough to life to let it show me as it will, if I'm willing, where it is that something that I have met that moment with has gone before me. Some purpose, some plan, some ideal that meets life and insists that it do what I want it to do. And then when life doesn't, we know what follows. We're in a fight with life, and I'm going to show you the truth about some of these things today, so that you might come to an end of this fight with life. I have a couple stories to tell you. One before I tell you I know is not going to be too popular because nobody likes to be told they're not who they think they are. But the truth is, until we begin to recognize that we're all, in one way or another, clinging to an identity, an ideal, an image of ourselves, and that the only thing we fight with life about or anyone else is when that idea, that ideal, that belief we hold so dearly is challenged. And then our present mindset is to go out and try to correct everyone and everything around us instead of recognize that the moment didn't produce the problem, it revealed a problem that was living in me that was produced by a predetermined set of ideas and beliefs that I had when I met life. So, it's difficult, but we're going to look at this through a little story to help us kind of get the drift. Once upon a time there was a little creature, and it was in the woods sitting on a great oak tree, the father of the forest. And it was sighing and crying – and we should all know this – “Ohhhhh!!” – full of woe and grief and dismay. So much so that it finally disturbed the great oak tree that said, “Little creature, what on earth is your problem?” And the little creature said – first of all, it was glad that something or someone acknowledged its pain – “Oh, I don't know. Well, it's just, you know, there's, I don't…” and it just started staggering through this list, but never getting to any answer. And the great old oak said, “Wait a minute. Slow down. Why don't you tell me what the experience is that you're having, and then maybe if you tell me with clarity, I can help you understand why you're having this trouble.” The little creature thought that sounded reasonable. It said, “Well, first I thought everything was going to be different than this.” The oak tree said, “Different than this? What do you mean different than this?” “I just thought that once certain things happened, I wouldn't have the same problems that I do. But the fact is, I have the same problems, even though I shouldn't be having these problems.” He said, “Whoa, slow down little creature. What problems are you talking about?” “Well, for instance, I thought that my past would absolutely no more be a pain to me, that I wouldn't have any regrets or anything because of the change that I had gone through.” The old oak said, “Well, what change is that?” The little creature said, “You know, when you become a butterfly, you're able to lift and be above everything.” And the old oak kind of shook its leaves a little bit and said, “I think I understand the problem now, little creature” “Oh, well thank God somebody does! What's the problem?” He said, “You're still a caterpillar.” “What?!” “You're still a caterpillar.” “How can you say that to me?!” the little creature said, convinced that it was a butterfly. Let me break into the story. How many of you are convinced you're butterflies? Old oak tree said to the little creature, “So let me ask a question. Do you trip over yourself from time to time?” And you know, a caterpillar has a lot of legs. “Yeah, I do.” “Do you chew over things over and over again?” The little creature said, “Yeah, I do.” The old oak tree said, “Look, the only problem that you have is that you haven't gone through the transformation that you're supposed to go through yet, but that you believe you have.” As long as you believe that you're something that you're not, all of the lessons that life provides that are intended to help you go through the transformation are avoided. They're seen as “not fitting,” so that there's a rejection of reality, whose sole purpose is to bring about the transfiguration. But if one believes they're already transfigured, how can life have the effect upon them that it’s intended to?
