White Cloud Retreat (16 page)

“I’ve been terrorized
into submission by my folks who keep telling me that I’ll end up in hell if I
sin,” said a young gal, her cheeks pink with guilt.

“I’ve never believed in
any of this worship stuff,” said one guy. “Every time I’d ask a question they’d
frighten me by telling me that bad things happen to those who ask too many
questions.”

“So to recap, you are
bleeding precious energy because you daydream, blame, complain and criticize,
because of infatuation, because you are weighed down by useless memories,
because of sin and guilt (if not a lot then a little). Sin is a figment of your
imagination that never had anything to stand on but survived for so long
because
you energized it with fear
that sprouted from your being
,” said the
chairman.

"Women are good
when it comes to all of this. Their bullshit detector is far better than a
man's. They've always been the protector whereas man has always been the
provider. You put bullshit on a man's plate, he'll eat it and then say - Well, that
tasted kinda funny.

Everyone burst out
laughing.

"Learn from women,
you'll prosper tremendously," said the chairman

*****

Once, three beautiful
birds landed on the front lawn of a house. The lady of the house was busy with
her daily chores when she nonchalantly looked up and saw these heavenly
creatures. She went up to them and almost let out a shriek when the first bird
said: “My name is Love.”

The second bird said:
“My name is Success,” and the third bird said: “My name is Wealth.”

The lady could scarcely
believe her good fortune. She invited all of them in, but Love told her, that
she could only choose one of them.

She went running in and
called her husband. Soon, there was an animated discussion, about which bird
was to be let in. The fight was for Success and Wealth, neither wanted Love.

A little while later,
their eight year old daughter came out and saw the birds. Since her parents
were unable to come to a decision, they asked her to choose. The little girl
didn’t know what Success or Wealth meant, so she chose Love.

As soon as Love flew
into the house, Success and Wealth too flew into the house. This left the
parents perplexed. Love had conveniently forgotten to mention, that if it was
chosen, then Success and Wealth had no option but to follow it, wherever it
went.

*****

CHAPTER
7

Nothing
can Kill You!

The chairman
looked over at the paper plane made of money that still lay unclaimed on the
floor. No one had dared pick it up. Maybe they were afraid of being labelled as
greedy. Just when the chairman was going to reach down for it, the young gal
retrieved it for him. He thanked her as he pocketed the money.

“So, how many of
you are afraid of death?” asked the chairman.

All of them
raised their hands.

“Why?” asked the
chairman.

“It's game over
once we’re dead, ain’t no fun in that,” said one man.

“Here’s a
scientific fact that science does not know yet: you are immortal,
you will
never die or in other words - nothing can kill you, because
you are the
essence
,” said the chairman.

“Howz that
possible?” asked an elderly gentleman, who flashed a toothless grin.

*****

A day is
equivalent to a lifetime enveloped in 24 hours. A day and a lifetime are like
two gears, made of the same material, have teeth, and rotate in a circular
fashion. They differ in size -
not in function
. Hence, you are born
every day.

When you sleep,
you don't sleep, your body sleeps. When you die, you don't die, your body dies.
The sun doesn't rise in the east and set in the west. The sun always is just as
pure awareness always is. Don't let the rising and setting blindside you. Just
like the sun - You are Pure Awareness and Awareness always Is. Don't let small
things like birth and death fool you!

*****

"Once you
were a baby, is that baby still around?" asked the chairman.

"No,"
said the elderly gentleman.

"Are you
still here?" asked the chairman.

"Damn right
I am," he replied, as everyone burst out laughing.

"Once you
were a teenager, is that teenager still around? Once you were a young man, is
that young man still around? Once you were a middle aged man, is that middle
aged man still around?" asked the chairman. "None of them are around,
but you're still here, aren't you?"

"Yeah,"
said the elderly gentleman.

"So you
take up all these forms that are eventually discarded, but the "you"
still remains, this ever-present awareness that is witness to everything that
is happening," said the chairman. "The witness always was, is and
always will be."

“So why are we not
aware of this fact?” asked the senior gentleman.

“You hit the
nail on the head," said the chairman. "It’s all ‘bout awareness. All
of you sleep with your eyes wide open during the day so there’s ‘very little to
no awareness’ even when you are awake. With such low levels of awareness there
is very little difference between you and an animal.

“This imaginary
fear of death keeps you rooted to the same spot, every decision you take is
centered around your safety, your security. You might not be aware of it, but
deep down its playing on your ignorance (that you are unaware of your
immortality) all the time.

“When you die
you don’t die, it's not game over, it's just break-time. Tired of this
existence, tired of playing the game of life, you take a breather and then get
back on court with renewed energy,” said the chairman.

“Death is a
figment of your imagination. The fear of death sucks out enormous amounts of
energy from you on a daily basis. This stunts your growth and you live life
half-dead. Many diseases and bodily pain in life are on account of this fear
manifesting itself in myriad forms.

“You walk around
thinking that someone or something will harm you or your family; the funny
thing is – those who surround you also walk around thinking that you’ll stick
it into them at any moment.

“If you want to
tattoo one thing then let it be this –
Death is the ultimate illusion
,”
said the chairman. “It’s back to the concepts of ‘Empty yourself of your
memories, your past conditionings and bring down this wall of resistance that
has come up on account of your memories.

“When you try to
reason, you are standing on the foundation of your memories, for without the
support of your memories you cannot reason, so such a method of learning is
faulty. In Latin -
to educate means to draw from within, not to shove from
outside
. Eternal truths bubble up from deep within and point you in the
right direction,” said the chairman.

“These eternal
truths are diametrically opposite to the memories you carry with you, for the
simple reason that your memories are formed with the help of the five senses.
Your senses can decode a very limited portion of the frequency/energy spectrum
and are inadequate to say the least.

“If
you blow a dog whistle, the dog can hear it, but you can’t,” said the chairman.
“That’s how unreliable your ears are. An x-ray machine can see through objects,
but your eyes can’t, that’s how unreliable your eyes are.

“So educate
yourself from the 'inside out' not from the 'outside in',” said the chairman.

“This is deep
shit if you ask me,” said one man, convinced but still a little tentative.

“Yeah, we take
ourselves way too seriously,” said another, grinning mischievously.

“We’re beginning
to understand how much time, energy and resources we waste fearing death, when
we could instead enjoy life and live life in the here and now,” said an elderly
lady.

"When a
person is about to be hanged to death, when a soldier begins running towards
death in the battlefield, when someone with unrequited love and crushed heart
finally takes that first step (after all those years of self-imposed
incarceration), instead of fear, there is a smile on the face," said the
chairman.

"Not a
smile that represents madness but a smile brought about by a realization that
everything that can be taken has been taken, and in spite of everything being
taken - nothing has been or can be taken, that the word "to take"
itself is a fallacy, born out of the limitation of language - a bastard
offering of intelligence (not intellect) that will never be able to put even
the faintest brilliance of 'the essence/ the source' into word, that only
sound, guttural sound, from the very depths of the human soul, even with all
its infiniteness, can do, only limited justice, to the infinite energy that
lies dormant within the very depths of your Self, that realization takes birth.

"That to
finally overcome the illusion of illusions, the biggest illusion that exists -
Death, either physical, emotional or mental - that death does not exist, and is
a figment of your imagination - unlocks a million nuclear reactions, bursting
and overflowing with energy, like a mischievous child who is unable to fathom
weariness, stress or fatigue, and smiles at them, because the child knows,
because the child has not yet lost its awareness."

This was
followed by a round of silence, a silence that was deep, peaceful and oddly
nourishing. It was customary for people to start hyperventilating when the
topic of death raised its ugly head - the one thing that everyone hated,
vehemently and passionately. Death needed to be killed by all means, and if
they could they would. All of sudden they realized that death was but an
illusion, that reality was different, that their sense organs were playing this
elaborate game of hide and seek that kept them imprisoned in fear of death all
through life - when the simple truth is - death does not exist!

"Before I
move on, I'd like to quickly talk about your financial blueprint that controls
your ability to earn. It can be changed but many people find it impossible to
do so," said the chairman.

"Why is
that?" asked an impatient young man before the chairman could finish.

"Beneath
that blueprint is another blueprint and beneath that another one, until you
reach the 'blueprint of all blueprints'," said the chairman.

Everyone waited
with baited breath for the chairman to blurt out this big secret; most looked
like dogs with their tongues hanging out, waiting for the ball to be thrown, so
that they could pounce on it before anyone else could get to it.

"Just like
computers have only two states - 0 and 1, human beings too have only two states
- will this hurt me (will I die) or will this help me (will I survive)?"
said the chairman.

"Everything
is a reflection of everything. It's not surprising that computers have only two
states because those (we humans) who gave birth to computers too have only two
states.

"Your
external reality is a projection of your internal energy.

"The
supreme priority of the organism (you) is survival, and the organism will do
anything and everything in its power to ensure its safety.

"If the
opportunity to make money arises then the organism will do everything in its
power to prevent that from happening because making money "involves
risks," and why put your sweet ass on the line when everything seems fine
right now?

"If you
start putting your rump on the line then the organism activates your memory
banks, puts it into overdrive, and in no time your mind is overflowing with
horrific scenarios (all of them imaginary) of what would happen if you
attempted to do something out of the ordinary. This is the organism's way of
telling you that if you do something different then life might tear you another
asshole, which is rather unnecessary, because the one you have right now seems
to be functioning quite normally.

"Your
stress levels, cholesterol levels and blood pressure shoot straight through the
roof. All of sudden something as simple as breathing becomes difficult; some
gasp, some hyperventilate and some start sweating like little piglets. You run
to the fridge, grab a can of soda, a big piece of cake, plonk on the sofa, turn
on the TV and everything is back to where it always was - being a couch potato.

“How do we
overcome this fear?” asked a young woman.

“It's a good
question. I'm glad you asked," said the chairman.

“This fear of
'will I die' arises from a
fear of the unknown -
because of a lack of
knowledge, not worldly knowledge but spiritual knowledge. This is the root
cause of any and every fear, this state of
not knowing
is what keeps you
imprisoned. The moment you know the answer
i.e.
when you grow bigger than your
problems, this fear disappears."