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'The Look of Silence'
Easton, Maine
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Saying: Spiritually, to receive a grace means you do something to receive that grace. Yet, grace means you did not receive it because you did something to receive it. If you cultivate a seed, and it grows into a plant with fruit, you cannot say it happened for you cultivated the seed. Yet, it would not have happened without your effort. So, it is essential to wed ardent aspiration with ardent action.
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A hermit sage was meditating beside a river. A young man interrupted the quietness. "Sir, I want to become your disciple." "Why?" replied the hermit. "I want to find peace."
The hermit jumped up, grabbed him by the neck, dragged him into the river, and plunged his head underwater. After holding him there for a time, the man kicking and struggling to free himself, the hermit pulled him up out of the water.
The young man coughed up water, gasping for air. When he quieted down, the hermit spoke, "Tell me, what did you want most of all when you were underwater?"
"Air!" replied the man angrily.
"Good!" said the hermit. "Go home and return to me when you want peace as much as you wanted air."
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While all spiritual qualities are natural, natural does not imply arising without effort. Much effort is put forth to come to the point of the grace of effortlessness. Effortlessness means action with effort, so something arises without effort.
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*(C) Brian K. Wilcox, 2021
*Brian's book, An Ache for Union: Poems on Oneness with God through Love, can be ordered through major online booksellers or the publisher AuthorHouse. The book is a collection of poems based on mystical traditions, predominantly Christian and Sufi, with extensive notes on the poetry's teachings and imagery.
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