Enriching Others
What is the key to enriching others?
Simply, you must first enrich yourself. How can a beggar share his
wealth with others? Similarly, if you would like to enrich others
with the inner wealth of spiritual knowledge and grace, then you must
first fill yourself until you are overflowing. Then, quite
spontaneously, without any contrived effort or unnecessary planning,
your actions will begin to fill the lives of others with the most
auspicious things existence has to offer.
How do you enrich your self, not just
superficially through certificates, honors, position, security, or
second hand knowledge, but deeply, within the very heart of your
mind, body and spirit? First you must be open to receive. To be
open to receive inner wealth means not just to be aware and receptive
in certain situations through teachers or authorities, but to be
constantly open and receptive throughout the entire flow of life in
its supreme totality, its minutest details and everything in between.
Look here, a child playing with a new
toy, the expression on their face, infinite insight gained in a split
second twinkling of their eye. Over here, a tree aged with untold
character, countless seasons of cold and warmth embedded in layer
after layer of the ageless quest for life. Above you, the setting
sun melting the pink clouds of the eternal evening. Below you, the
superabundant variety of life- twigs, stones, earth, plants, leaves-
scattered about mile after mile of forest trail.
This is just the surface, look now, a
new emotion, a new flavor of experience calling you to honor the
mystery of the subtle contours of inner life. A new thought, a free
flowing idea shaping an unformed world into existence through the
play of consciousness. If you notice carefully, these moments are
constantly happening all around you, within you, in others, in the
sky, in the stars above, in each and every glimmer of light that
reaches your eye, in each and every texture of sound that
reverberates in your ears, in each and every tingle of sensation that
meets your skin, in each and every wave of breath that flows in and
out of your lungs.
This may seem to be all so abstract,
just useless bits of experience that offer no real benefit to
yourself or others. But this is only so in a so-called modern
society where the standard of “education” is how well you can
operate machines, board rooms, cubicles, class rooms, all with the
expressed aim of “standardized measurable results”. Inner
enrichment begins by living a life beyond all measurement, by risking
everything including life itself to awaken and express your profound
uniqueness of being.
What else is considered to be of the
highest value but the most unique are rare things of life? All that
is demanded of you is constant awareness, an imperturbable
inquisitiveness into the gross and subtle dynamics of inner and outer
life in all possible dimensions. If you are quite sincere in this
quest, then by natural law a teacher, guide or Guru will come into
your life who will open you up to new dimensions of knowledge,
experience and grace.
It is the Guru who is the ultimate
concentrated force of nature. The countless dramas of existence, the
play of atoms and galaxies, the uncharted planes of thought, the pure
source of love and compassion, the supernatural bliss of supreme
grace, the deepest everlasting mysteries of existence- all these are
compacted into their being and are revealed to the sincere disciple
layer by layer, moment to moment until the disciple is overfilled,
overflowing like a thimble filled by an entire ocean.
The receptivity to be enriched by each
moment of life is essential, in truth, a necessity to become fully
established in the bliss of Self. If you think you can only gain
insight from one belief, religion, God or Guru and exclude all the
other dimensions of life you are only fooling yourself. The
lightning of insight should strike you from all directions and ignite
the blazing fire of supreme awareness in your own heart until all
trace of delusion is cast out of your being.
By this inner light you awaken the Guru
within and become an endless source of enrichment for others.
Through the innumerable pathways of insight that you fearlessly chart
within yourself, you can skillfully guide others into the highest
truths of existence. By recognizing and appreciating each moment of
existence as an opportunity for enriching yourself, no matter how
painful or unenlightening it may seem, you create the capacity for
utilizing anything and everything in existence as a means of sharing
the wonder, glory, intelligence, compassion and bliss of the supreme
Self. OM