Heaven, Earth and Creation

Heaven, Earth and Creation ihree weeks after I had met my last teacher, we were sit- ting quietly together in a park in Lucknow in northern India. I was pondering over my newfound realization that everything simply IS. "There's nothing to do and nowhere to go," I said, breaking the silence. "After awakening one sees clearly that nothing needs to change because every- thing is perfect as it is." "Very good," he responded. A few moments later I asked him, "Why then did the Buddha start a sangha? Why did he encourage people to give up the world and follow him in order to lead a life of renunciation together, outside of and apart from the secu- lar world?" "I don't know," he said, shaking his head. At the time, this seemed to be a contradiction to the real- ization of the inherent perfection of things as they are. The desire to move away from, to change in any way, seemed to be the very antithesis of that radical understanding. Heaven, Earth and Creation Why, 1 wanted lo know, did Ramana Maharshi, my teacher's teacher, discourage his disciples from making any external changes in their lives in order to facilitate their awakening, while the Buddha encouraged so many to give up all for the sake of enlightenment? There was no ques- tion that these two men stood as peerless examples of the highest spiritual attainment. It was not irrelevant, there- fore, that their teachings differed so significantly It wasn't until five years had passed that 1 finally began to understand the answer to that question. During the first retreat that I taught in Bodhgaya in 1991, I took long walks with some of my closest students in the dusty fields just beyond the main temple. As we walked and talked, a mas- sive stone statue of the Buddha sitting serenely in a medita- tion posture stared at us from the edge of town. It was then that I began to inquire in a way that I never had before. It occurred to me that enlightenment was not neces- sarily all one and the same. It began to dawn on me that although the absolute nature of enlightenment must be one and the same, the different expressions of enlightenment in apparently fully awakened individuals could be based on conclusions about its significance that were not necessarily the same. For the first lew years ol my teaching career, my spon- taneous response to those who came to me was: realize and surrender. Realize that mystery that canncn be understood iZb An I 'numditumal RcUilionship (o Life by the mind. Upon the discovery of that mystery, surrender to that and that alone. Reahze and surrender. Reahze and surrender. Reahze and surrender. Reahze that you were never born. Surrender to the fact that you were never unfree. Reahze there was never a prob- lem and never back down from that realization. Surrender to that and that alone. What more could there be to it? What more could there be? Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Spontaneously this message, this transmission of love and joy streamed through me, touching the hearts of those who dared to believe even for an instant that it could be so simple. The fact that heaven was at hand, that it had never been distant but was always nearer than near, ready to be found like a long lost love, was a constant revelation to me and to those who gathered around me. In heaven there is nothing to do and nowhere to go. Or is there? With time and experience the same current coming from that mystery began to carry a different cadence. The message began to change. Why? Because it became more and more apparent that heaven was not separate from earth. In heaven there was no doer. In heaven there was no other, there was no cause and there was no effect. On earth there was a doer, there was another, there was cause and effect. Heaven, Earth and Creation Herein la\ the greatest challenge for any genuine leach- ing ol cnlightcnnuMil. lo reveal that perfect middle place between all pairs o{ opposites—that most profound point where heaven and earth meet and become indistinguishable. This seemed to he not only the greatest challenge for any teaching of enlightenment, but also the greatest challenge for the seeker after enlightenment. The extraordinary subtlety in this seemed so easy to miss. For even though the deepest spiritual insight was the revelation of that perfect middle place where heaven and earth meet, few seemed to be able to sustain that depth of transparency for more than a brief instant. Indeed, what often posed as the pursuit of enlight- enment, closer scrutiny revealed to be none other than a path of escape from earth. In that escape the fundamental foundation of ignorance—which is a dualistic relationship to life—not only was not destroyed, but unknowingly became even more pronounced. This was why the message began to change. This was why the fact that heaven was not separate from earth now became my constant refrain. What then began to unfold was exlraordinar\. The current coming from that mystery now began to uncoxer a view in which earth didn't have to disappear in order to realize heaven. More importantly, realizing heaxen was not enough — lor now lo liicralh' mcinijcst heaven on emlh became an unavoidable and irreconcilable necessilx if awakening was lo he lrul\' im-oIouucI. This nunenienl— An I'monduional Relationship lo i/t bringing the living fact of heaven, of unity, into time and space, into being—revealed itself to be an evolutionary imperative. The call to be that which is undivided over- took the significance of the mere discovery of that which is undivided. The thrill was uncontainable as the evolutionary impulse that expressed itself as boundless energy wanted only that that perfect love and unity become manifest in time and space. As what? As perfect relationship between self and other, self and world. The meaning of nonduality seemed to take on even greater significance. Heaven was not separate from earth—but that fact now had to be proven through the unconditional willingness to become the living expression of that which is undivided as self. The movement of the big bang, of creation itself, was revealed in all its glory Miraculously the very structures that contain and sustain ignorance and impede evolution were seen through while simultaneously structures that contain and sustain love and unity came into being. So much became possible and so much passion to realize that possibility expressed itself. Indeed, there seemed to be so much to do! In the response to the call to be that which is undivided, there was no way to escape from earth. In fact, the call to be that which is undivided demanded that all impulses to remain divided, which means separate, be transcended. It became obvious that only through perfect renunciation Heaven, Earth and Creation and transcendence of ihc impulse to remain separate, would the individual be able to manifest that transparency which was the very expression of ihc point where heaven and earth meet and become indistinguishable. Walking back toward the main temple, it was clear in a way that it never had been before the degree to which my own perspective had changed. It seemed that Ramana Maharshi and the Buddha actually were speaking about different expressions of enUghtenment. While there was no doubt in my mind that both of these extraordinary men were full-blown manifestations of the miracle of profound spiritual awakening— the discovery of and perfect abidance in that perfect middle place between all pairs of opposites— the expression of those realizations pointed to the fact that they had come to conclusions that were not necessarily the same. The former seemed to be pointing to the discovery of and permanent abidance in heaven. The latter, the necessi- ty of bringing heaven to earth. It became apparent now why one discouraged his disciples from making any external changes in their lives in order to awaken, while the other, for the same reason, encouraged so many to give up every- thing and come together. Three years later, 1 went to visit a Kahbalislic sciiolar who lived with his lamiU' in a small \illage of Hasidic Jews in the desert just outside I el A\\\. 130 An Umondilional Rchitionship (o /.i|i "The basic principle of the mystical way of Judaism is called 'ratzo vashov'," he said. "Ratzo vashov means a continual, living dynamic of the terms of run and return. Run and return means running out of confinement and being able to return into that previous state of confine- ment in order to rectify it.... In some way God created the world in order for us to bring his infinite light into this finite existence. That's the purpose, that's Utopia." Heaven, Earth and Creation