|
Main Index
|
| |
| |
|
| |
through the darkest hour of the night: the dark night of the soul. And in the fourth watch of the night, the darkest part, Jesus went unto them.
You can call your master for help only when you have done all that can be done. If you are lazy, and if you have not done anything, the master's help is impossible. Help becomes possible only when you have come to the darkest hour of your night beyond which you cannot do anything else; where you feel totally helpless, when you hang between life and death -- only then is help possible. When you are helpless, only then is help possible. If you go on thinking that you can still help yourself, or that life is still in your control, then the master is not needed. Only at a certain stage, when you feel yourself absolutely incapable of doing anything -you are simply in chaos, all control lost, helpless, totally helpless -- only then the master's help becomes possible. And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea.
And of course Jesus walks on the sea, the sea of desires, the sea of ignorance, the sea of the egos. In the East we understand the parable. One of the greatest masters of Zen, Lin-chi, has said, "Walk, but don't allow your feet to be touched by the water." One has to live in the world, but not be of the world -- one has to walk on the world. Jesus is not an escapist, he's not running from the world. He walks on the sea, he lives in the midst of the world, but he does not allow the water to touch his feet. This is what in the East we call 'to live like a lotus'. It lives in the water but the water cannot touch it -- even the dewdrops may settle on it, but they never touch it, there remains a gap. To become a lotus flower -- that is the meaning of this parable.
AND IN THE FOURTH WATCH OF THE NIGHT JESUS WENT UNTO THEM, WALKING ON THE SEA.
It is a parable of the inner turmoil of man, of the inner chaos of man, of the inner contrary wind, of the inner struggle to go to the other shore. It has nothing to do with the lake of Galilee. These things are of the inner world -- they are not events that have happened outside, they are processes of inner growth.
AND
|
|
|
|
| |