THE WAY OF THE SPIRIT

Chapter 2 Part 4
If you have not already done so, please read the beginning parts of this book before reading this part.
SHADOWS
The man looks into the bushes and sees a rabbit. Slowly, so as not to startle it, he reaches for the throwing stick tucked into his loincloth. With a snap of his arm and wrist he throws. His aim is true and he steps over and picks up - - - a stone.
His sister looks into a pnd and deep within it sees a fish. She eases her hand slowly into the water, fingers widely spread. Quick as she can she grasps and lifts from the water - - - a leaf.
They return home and around the hearth that night they tell of the magic rabbit that turned to stone and the fish that became a leaf.
The people touch the stone and lift the leaf and murmur in wonder.
But the stone was always a stone and the leaf was blown into the pond by the wind.
The eyes saw truly and only in the mind did the stone become a rabbit and the leaf a fish. The eyes look and see a piece of wood, sinew and a bundle of reeds. The mind looks through the eyes and says,"Ah. A bow and a bundle of fine bird arrows."
But the bow IS wood. Is it really a bow or part of a tree? Is the sinew really a bowstring or part of a deers leg? Are the reeds arrows or the stems of water plants?
And IS the tree really just a tree? Is it not part of the earth on which it stands? Is the Earth part of the sky through which it moves? Is the sky part of - WHAT?
So the eyes of the soul see and perceive truly, but the mind makes what they see into something else. As the hunter wished to see a rabbit and his sister a fish, so the mind wishes to see what can be touched by the hands.
But the hands can touch only the tree. They cannot touch the soul of the tree, and so the mind pretends that it is not there - and yet it is.
The eyes of your soul perceive the soul of the tree and know it as a part of itself since the beginning of time.
It is good to look outward and see the physical world, but it is sometimes good to look inward and see with the eyes of the soul.
I tell you now. Unless you sometimes turn your eyes within you will see stones as rabbits and leaves as fish.
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As children, we were constantly told to stop daydreaming and see things as they really are. If we take this advice however, we will find ourselves seeing only a small part, the physical part, of things. Since the physical is only temporary and the spiritual eternal, I leave it to you to judge what is real.`
The tendency to translate spiritual truths into physical terms is an all too human failing. We must learn that even as our ohysical eyes have spiritual counterparts, so does our mind, operating through the brain, have a spiritual counterpart operating through the soul. Few of us have much experience in its use, but perhaps it is time we learned.
Logic will serve you well in the everyday world and I certainly am not telling you to abandon it. You will find however, that if you try to use it in matters of the soul, it will lead you so far astra that you will, as did those in the tale, see stones as rabbits and leaves as fish.
Try phrasing spiritual questions very strongly. Direct the question inward with all the emotion you can muster, then dismiss it from your mind. In the midst of your everyday activity, you will suddenly KNOW. If you are alert to it, this sort of direct knowledge will often come to you, even when you are not consciously aware that you had sought it.
Trust such knowledge. It may have an immediate application in physical life, then again it may be ,"wishta hei", cloud like knowledge. Wishta hei knowledge will, when you try to translate it with the part of your mind devoted to every day activity, change shape. Twisting and turning, constantly showing different faces wisps of it drifting here and there. It will be as difficult to translate as it would be to grasp a cloud. Play with it if you wish. Our spiritual activity needs playfulness in it. Don't fret. Our spiritual mind sees it clearly and knows well what to do with it. It will, insofar as possibel, translate those parts of it that are useful to the physical mind.
Please allow me a personal observation here. Whenever someone presents an idea to me about which I am doubtful, I apply my own test. Make a joke about it. If it puffs up like a toad and appears pompous and indignant, stick a pin in it and cast it aside. The deflated idea is useless at best and harful at the worst. I am firmly convinced that the Creator loves a joke. His being grows in our joy and laughter.
Be forever alert however, not to use humor as a weapon to hurt others. Punch someones nose and it will heal. Harm someones sense of worth or pride in self and you may well warp their lives.
The Nanina always took care, especially in the case of children, not to harm anothers pride. The next tale will illustrate this.
TO BE CONTINUED.