Let's continue with change through awareness,
Effortlessness in change.
It's all of a nice image for that.
The sailboat,
You have a sailboat with a mighty wind in its sails and it glides along so effortlessly.
And the boatman,
What does he have to do?
Nothing but steer.
He makes no effort.
He doesn't push the boat.
That's something of an image of what happens when change comes about through awareness,
Through understanding.
I was going through some of my notes and I found some quotes so I thought I'd read them to you.
Listen to this one.
There is nothing so cruel as nature.
In the whole universe,
There is no escape from it.
And yet,
It is not nature that does the injury,
But the person's own heart.
Does that make sense?
You know the story of Paddy who fell from the scaffolding and got a good bump.
He was working on that building and they said,
Did the fall hurt you,
Paddy?
And Paddy says,
No,
It was the stop that hurt,
Not the fall.
When you cut water,
The water doesn't get hurt.
When you cut something that's solid,
It breaks.
You got solid attitudes inside.
You've got solid illusions inside.
That's what bumps against nature.
That's where you get hurt.
That's where the pain comes.
Beginning to make sense?
You pick up your addictions,
You pick up your illusions,
You identify yourself with the me,
You're going to get hurt,
You're going to experience pain.
So that's where it comes from.
How come you experience so much pain in this situation someone else doesn't?
Same situation,
Different heart,
Different outlook,
Different attitude.
Change your attitude,
Something will happen.
Here's a lovely one.
These are mostly from Oriental sages.
Don't even remember from whom.
It really doesn't matter.
Like in the Bible,
The author doesn't matter.
What is said is what matters.
If the eye is unobstructed,
The result is sight.
If the ear is unobstructed,
The result is hearing.
If the nose is unobstructed,
The result is a sense of smell.
If the mouth is unobstructed,
The result is a sense of taste.
If the mind is unobstructed,
The result is wisdom.
When you drop those barriers that you have erected through your concepts and conditionings,
Wisdom is not something acquired.
Wisdom is not experience.
Wisdom comes from not being influenced by experience.
Wisdom is not applying yesterday's solution to today's problem.
As somebody said to me when I was doing my degree in psychology in Chicago years ago,
Someone said,
Frequently in the life of a priest,
50 years experience is one year's experience repeated 50 times.
You got the same solution.
This is the way to deal with the alcoholic.
This is the way to deal with priests.
This is the way to deal with sisters.
This is the way to deal with the divorcee.
That isn't wisdom.
Wisdom is to be sensitive to this situation,
To this person,
Uninfluenced by any carryover from the past.
No residue from the experience of the past.
Quite unlike what most people are accustomed to thinking.
I would add another sentence to the ones I've read.
When the heart is unobstructed,
The result is love.
Now I've been talking a great deal about love and I told you there's nothing that can be said really about love.
We can only speak of non-love and drop that.
We can only speak of addictions and drop that.
But of love itself,
Nothing may be said explicitly.
