Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Across The Path of Time

You cannot measure time...

There is the Infinite Path .. out of which arise the ebb and flow of the tides.

I spent my youth sitting on the rocks at the edge of the sea. I would sit there for hours and watch the ocean waves. At low tide I could climb out pretty far to the rocks below and at high tide I had to scramble back closer to the shore.

The whole coastline had changed dramatically over the last five hundred years... I did not tell anyone - at that time - that I saw the changes long ago in my dreams. I just sat by the sea, whenever I could, watching the movement of the water.

In reality, I knew that time does not exist. All that exists are the tides. Continents may come and continents may go on the surface of the Earth; but time is an illusion. The Masters taught me that all that exists are facts... and they were right.

I was born in 2513, very near to the coast. Things were stable now and we did not expect such severe changes to occur again for at least two thousand years. The coastline changes were so severe that the seabed swallowed everything made by man.

The buildings did not only disappear underwater, they were swallowed by the rocks, lava and silt, buried deep under the sea. It had happened before in Earth's history and it will happen again.

The Taoist Masters laughed at our concern. They said they regularly talked with their Ancestors across the illusion of space and time. All is one. Time is an illusion.

I wished I could talk with the Ancestors!

Only now and then could I see different worlds than the one we have today. I once saw myself sitting on the rocks of a wild shoreline. That was another life. For hours I sat watching the waves and that is why I know time is an illusion.

You can never remember the size, nature, movement and form of each wave.

Our Ancestors did not think of time - but only of the movement of the tides.

One day at the shore, the sea seemed calm and friendly. There were few clouds in the sky above. The sunlight sparkled like diamonds on the surface of the water. Suddenly, out of the blue, a large wave crashed over my head. Soaking wet I sheepishly returned home - I never saw it coming towards me.

Today I call them Ninja waves .. they sneak up to the shore flat and silent, hidden among the larger and smaller waves. The swell is massive and yet you barely see it coming. It's as though the ocean knows you are there and it touches you deeply.

I wish I could talk with the Ancestors!

All events that unfold in our lives are the rocks, trees and landscape of The Path, the Taoist Masters said. The Path is timeless, although it may take you a lifetime to follow its Way and understand.

The Taoist Masters had no intention of allowing us to sleepwalk the Path in this life. The sudden wave soaking me now is their teachings. I walk ahead, paying attention, soaked to the skin with their energy, alert and observing my own nature.

Getting soaked by the sea and getting soaked by the Tao is one and the same.

The Path is the Path...

It was the energy that had changed my life way back five hundred years ago. It is the energy that is changing my life now in 2513. This is why I say, time does not exist.

The ebb and flow of energy is the cosmic tide that guides us on our Path. Guidance is the past and the future manifest in the present. Past, present and future are NOW.

The Path is all around us in every moment in every aspect of the landscape. The next wave washes gently away from the sand and crosses the last wave and the one before, and the one before, and the one before - lifetime after lifetime.

I still love to sit and watch the ocean - even on stormy days.

Observing my own nature.

Sunday, July 8, 2012

Sunlight Reflected On The Oceans

Sparkling light sends out rays that no one sees...

"Wake up, little one..."

Rays of light shimmer across deep blue waters.

"Wake up .. wake up..."

Sunlight ripples on the surface of the oceans waves.

"Don't you hear me?" ... "Wake up..."

A large wave crashes onto the shore .. the bright sand soaks water .. wake up !!

"Oh! I'm sorry... "

"I'm sorry, Master .. please forgive me!"

"What were you dreaming - little one?"

"Why! Nothing! I wasn't dreaming... Please forgive me Master!"

"The Tao is endless and so .. why not dream!"

Sunlight sparkled on the surface of the sea. Wave after wave rolled onto the sandy shore. The Sun shimmered in waving lines across the wet sand as the ocean waves receded. Everything on our world depends on the sea.

"What were you dreaming of, little one?"

The surface of the ocean reflected onto my blue eyes.

"I'm sorry I fell asleep, Master!"

Each wave rolled across the sand and receded. All reflecting light.

"What did you dream of, little one?" he asked.

How can a child know truth, when those around us do not? I bowed my head and closed my eyes. I tried to hide my dreams deep, deep beneath the ocean waves, like the sea cockles and clams buried and hidden deep under the sandy shore.

I did not want to insult my Masters, and so I hid my secret treasure deep beneath the ocean.

"What did you dream little one?" he asked.

"I .. I .. dreamt of the ocean..."

"I saw the sunlight reflected on the surface of the sea."

"And where were you?" he asked.

"I was not .. there was only the vast ocean and the sunlight."

"Then, how did you see both water and the Sun?" he asked.

How did I see both water and the Sun? "I don't know!"

"Consciousness is like sunlight reflected on the ocean of my mind."

"Buddha protect you child... The sea is all consciousness .. timeless .. and the reflected sunlight is awareness. Now, waken up from your dreams," he said.

"May Buddha bless you..."