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I say courage
Is the most fundamental religious quality.
Jesus is courageous, that is the meaning
Of carrying his cross on his own shoulders.
That means one is ready to die any moment
For one's convictions, for one's commitments
For one's promises.
One is even ready to sacrifice one's life
Joyously, with no complaint, with no grudge.
Just the other day in Rome, the pope
Enacted the carrying of the cross to the hill.
It is a drama.
Thousands of pilgrims were following him
With torches and flags and crosses of their own.
And he carried a beautifully carved cross
On his shoulders.
And it was thought that something
Tremendously beautiful was happening.
It is simply ugly.
It is befooling yourself and others.
Carrying one's own cross is not a drama
It is a risk.
You cannot enact it, you have to live it.
And the drama was not even completed --
At least they should have crucified him!
What is the point
Of carrying the cross to the hill and coming back
All happy that it was a good picnic!
Bliss is not a human achievement,
It is a gift from god.
It comes from the beyond.
We cannot manufacture it
It is beyond our capacities to create it.
But we can be available to it
We can be ready for it
We can be a host for it.
Amd that's what meditation is all about:
Being a host for god
Waiting with great longing but with no anxiety
With great expectancy but no expectation.
The difference is subtle but of tremendous import.
If one can wait in hope, in trust
And one can surrender and say yes to god
One day it happens.
It happens suddenly, it never happens gradually.
It is not that it comes slowly slowly, in parts.
It suddenly explodes.
It suddenly takes possession of you
From all directions
You are engulfed, encompassed by it
The experience of bliss
Is an encompassing experience.
One is drowned in it!
The ego disappears totally
And
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