This is a very powerful and poetic way of looking at human condition. This image so beautifully and elegantly represents different aspects of human consciousness, and in so doing gives us a way of understanding ourselves better. See the moon experiences being in this world, thru having its reflection in the water, yet it is not here itself. It’s like saying we are on this earth but not of this earth.
Since the moon is not here, no matter how much water we give away, we still have the whole moon reflecting there. This can mean that we can be generous with ourselves, and give all we have, without ever lacking anything, since our essence, our Divine shine remains intact and ever plentiful. Also no matter how much dirt the bucket happens to be exposed to, no matter how much they try to muddy the pure water, the moon will still shine on as brightly. So no matter how much negativity is introduced to our lives, our ever brilliant Divine Jewel remains ever luminescent.
When I was telling my friends about this metaphor in Santa Fe, some other parts of the story made themselves known to me. After expounding on the above thought, I felt that really the whole purpose of having a container of water wasn’t to have all the water intact, rather to have the essence of the water remain, while all the other impure parts were evaporated. So much so that only a infinitesimal drop of water remained. This is because, it felt to me, that that miniscule drop of water would be and act like a particle of light, as opposed to a bucketful of water which would have only a negligible amount of light in comparison. I felt this represents purification process in human consciousness.
Having thought of the purification process, I asked myself what would be necessary to purify the water. The answer was something to help the water get evaporated. This meant a fire of course. Now how can the fire work? Well the fire works by evaporating the impure water. For this to happen we need to trust that the fire can purify the water in the first place. We also need to trust that the moonshine will not go away by just losing water and that in fact thru this purification the light quotient of the water will increase. We additionally need to trust that the reason we have the water in the first place, is to have it purified and not just leave it intact. So after thinking about all this I came to think of fire representing trust in the Divine process, trust in our essence, and trust in our goal to purify, in short trust.
So then I asked myself. So is having trust/heat enough to have purification. The answer was it is totally dependent of the material of the container. If the material of the container was paper for example, putting it on heat would completely destroy, the material, lose all the water without achieving any level of purification. Even something made of wood would still burn with fire and not serve well as a container for purification. Thinking about this issue made me see that the strength of the container is essential for any level of purification. The stronger the container, the more possible would purification be. I thought to myself then what would be the best material for heating water? You might think metal, but metal is not such a great container, since the container itself does get hot, and I felt that’s an undesirable effect. I felt it’s as if you want to only purify water, without affecting its container. In fact the process is best accomplished if the container remains calm, and cool. All this made me think of clay and pottery as the best material for the water.
Then I thought how does one create pottery? It’s by mixing, soil, water, and then heating it up. It’s as if the best material for purification is achieved thru a healthy mixture of earth energies, with our psychic energy and then expose it all to a lifetime of intense experiences.
So then I tried to put it all together, heat/trust, strength/material, and purification. I asked myself does strength alone bring purification. The answer was a resounding NO. Can we not have a clay container full of water which we never bother to heat up? Absolutely. Similarly we can have people who are super strong, without any interest, inclination, or desire for purification. These people could be very successful, materialistically, they could be brilliant in their fields with utmost adaptability, without any real interest in purification of their consciousness. We already observed that it’s impossible to have purification just by having trust alone also.
The following seems to be an accurate description of the process of purification. First we start with a container of water with moonshine. This container is paper-thin. At this point all we care about is strengthening the container. This can happen over a life time, or several life times. In these years, all we would be doing is strengthen ourselves, enrich ourselves, inform ourselves, and make ourselves adaptable. In these times we needn’t bother with purification issues. Only after a long period of building strength are we ready for trusting ourselves with the heat of purification. But after building the necessary strength we can just trust the Divine process and let ourselves be purified to our highest essence. After the strength is achieved, everything will be a question of trust. The more we trust, the more will we get purified.
So After revisiting this story that I wrote about 10 years ago I saw the second part of the story starting to reveal itself to me. You see I started thinking of all the people on the other side of the equation, I started thinking of not the people with incredibly powerful containers and no desire to purify only, but also those who have huge tendencies to want to constantly “purify” and evolve spiritually, but are lacking a powerful enough container which enables them to actually have a true purification.
I started thinking of a huge number of people in new age community who are great at talking the talk and not so great at walking the walk. I started thinking of all the people I know who read spiritual text, and eat vegan diets, who have never actually dealt with any of their shadows. I thought of all the people who meditate for hours a day, but given a tough situation they break down, and have no control over their emotions. How is that this exists in this world I considered. What kinda process is that.
How can someone meditate an hour a day, eat vegan food, go to yoga, yet be so out of touch with their own internal crisis? How can they be so “enlightened” in their mind yet lack the first ability to handle their own emotions. How can they be so cruel, negative, critical of themselves, and others after having been brought up in some ashram somewhere? How can they be so judgemental of themselves and others while having gone numerous silent retreats, having gone to burning man, having studied in some consciousness institute? How is that these new age types take so little responsibility over their own life and take so many things personally?
After all hasn’t this process of going to meditation, silent retreat, burning man, doing yoga, eating vegan food, doing tantra, reading spiritual text, et.. helped them actually purify their consciousness?
Then I got a message from spirit. I started seeing all this stuff is more like spiritual / consciousness consumption. As my dear friend Jeff Brown calls it, I started seeing a giant spiritual bypass in all these people.
So then I though, how is that these individuals haven’t actually grown? How is that smallest spiritual lessons completely throws them off-balance? How is that they cant handle slightest rejection? How is that they are so easily offended to the point of legislating words and laws to keep everything politically correct?
The answer I got, was that because they are paper cups, glorified paper cups, but still paper cups at that. And that they haven’t actually undergone the purification process in reality, rather a pseudo purification.
So I thought. How can a paper cup get pseudo purified. The answer hit me right in the head. Microwave of course!!
So then I started seeing how all this game works. I started seeing all these paper cups, who have such high opinion of themselves, because of the microwave like process of purification they are so quick to glorify.
I then thought how incredibly smart Matrix is. I thought right, rather than getting these people to actually do the work, so that they could become masters of their own life, with actual purification of their consciousness, why don’t we have them believe they are growing, without actually any need to grow in reality.
I then started thinking of all these microwave environments I know about. From SF bay area, and burning man, to every single school of mediation.
That made me realize something. I discovered that although a microwave doent help purify a paper cup, but it’s a fantastic and rapid way for growth if you arent a paper cup. So going to burning man can really help you go far if you have the strength of character to actually take in the heat. Otherwise, it can be a giant microwave which makes you feel so good about yourself, without actually undergoing much real change.
This whole thing then made me think about so how is that some of us are paper cups, and some of us are a little more like cups made of stone? How did the process of graduation from paper cup to something else happen?
The answer was simple. When we actually put ourselves on fire, its like our container burns down and after it fully disappears, like a snake shedding its skin, we then graduate to a stronger container.
I thought about this and saw the grace. I saw how every single time a paper cup has a chance to actually burn, and go to the next level. But sadly our society is built that, that is not required. Actually, our society warns us against any manner that we can burn our paper cup and graduate to stronger container.
I feel what goes on is that, given the right gentle fire, any paper cup can graduate to the next level of container. The idea of gentle fire is crucial though. This is because not every fire is the same, or has the same impact, and risks.
See for a paper cup, its ok to be held on a candle gently for a short time, so that it can graduate to another container gracefully. For example, as a life coach, that’s exactly the main service I offer.
But that same paper cup cannot and should not be put in an incinerator, because it will not graduate to another level, it will simply cease to exist. While a container made of titanium can be put in any fire, where it will never burn, and rather the water in it will keep purifying.
For me, this journey is all about having a strong enough container, in form of my nervous system if you will, which will then enable me to go thru any fire, with the ability to just purify my consciousness more and more. This is why I think vulnerability is the highest form of strength.
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