The First Step Towards Heaven
Now! To begin:
You are where you are and not
anywhere else.
The Yoga Sutras say: The
percepted is designed for the perceptor.
You must start where you are
at!
Dare for a moment to stop the
course you have taken in your life and look at your reality. It is as it is, if
you like it or not. As horrible as it may be, just look at it now. This is the
beginning.
After (quite) a while you will
realize, it is alright, as it is - even if you now hate it. Even if you now
curse god and your fate. Even that is o.k.! Don't worry, it will change - in
due time. Obviously you don't understand it fully as yet, but you will
understand it all. There is only one condition: You must start where you are,
now! You may forget that, but even if you have forgotten it all, as soon as you
remember, you will again know: There is only one way out: You must start where
you are at that very moment.
Is your existence ruined? Are you
in severe debt? Do you have a deadly disease? No matter what, there is a way
out! Unfathomable horizons will open to the one, who is willing to start his
life anew, now.
Don't be afraid, you don't
need to change your life now radically. You do not have to become a morally impeccable
person. All moral is just another illusion, a screen people set up to
disqualify other people or even themselves. No, just continue living as you
like, not as anyone else might find right, no. Do what you like, just look for
what it really is. Don't look for your - or anyone else's - moral standards,
no, just look for what you really like.
It may seem out of reach, it may
even be out of reach at the moment, just keep it on your mind and push out all
other standards. Push them all out of your system. What other people would like
you to do, is the poison, that makes you sick.
In case you care to know (if you
are not interested in bible matters just go on to the next paragraph, don't
poison your mind with my bullshit): The name of god in the bible is
"JAHWE", what means in translation "I am who I am". And the
first commandment reads in real translation: "I am who I am. The 'I am'
has liberated you from slavery in the past and it will again liberate you now.
Trust it and never again bend yourself under measures of other people - or else
you will become enslaved again." This is the first, and if you understand
it, the only commandment you ever need to obey.
What other people think is the
poison, that makes you sick.
So stop it all now!
No matter how much anger or guilt
you may feel. Don't run away from it, stop, and look it in the face now! Bare
it for a moment or two. Just bare your feelings and look at them. Suspend all
judgement! Just look. Whatever it is, it is only human! Whatever abysses might
open before you. Don't run away, bare it for a moment or two.
You must start where you are. Start
now!
And if you feel that your mind is
wandering off, don't force it. Let it go. And after a while go back or continue
reading and doing this exercise.
This exercise will be yours from
now on. Every now and then just sit down and look at your situation. Dispense
with palliations and also with pejorations. Just look at your situation, as it
really is according to your own standards - and I don't mean standards of your
ambition, but the standards of your heart. And if you have it, try to hold the
view for a little while, and then let go again. You will see: This little
exercise is actually the only exercise you will ever need on your way to - yes
- on your way to happiness.
Forget all superstition. How does a bee know what to do? Instinct? If you
want to call it so. All living things and even the elements of so called
"dead matter" - like electrons - have an inbuilt knowledge. It is not
a program. A program never could respond to the ever recurring surprises of
life. It is a sensitivity. And you have that sensitivity too. It just gets
blurred - through the standards of others. Everybody has this problem. Our
whole view of the world is heavily influenced by the will of other people. We
are kind of tamed. Like cows we stay inside the fence others have built in
order to use us there.
Realizing that somehow many people,
especially the youth, are trying to break loose, to jump over the fence to be
free. But beyond the fence, is there freedom? Most outbreakers from the first
moment on are caught inside another fence, for example: In pursuit of happiness
they brake the law in order to get rich. Do they follow their heart? No. Again
they follow just one standard of society: Become rich. Or in pursuit of
happiness they take drugs. Do they get what they desire? They might get a
glimpse of happiness, of being one with the heart. They might get a glimpse of
their true nature. They might get a glimpse of their potential. And that
glimpse already is so powerful that they always again want to have it, have it,
have it. Instead of walking the way to happiness, they want it instantly. It is
not possible. The drugs are there just for the glimpse. The way to happiness is
a different matter.
For real happiness it is necessary
to let go of all superstitions. Exactly that is, what makes it, as it sometimes
seems, so hard.
The image we have of the world and
of ourselves is not what reality is like. In our image of ourselves we don't
really see our potential and also we don't really see the others in their
genuine existence. Actually we go through live as if walking through a phantom
village where the people are just dummies. Unfortunately, as we sometimes
think, they are smart dummies, often outsmarting us, using us as dummies for
their own scenery.
So stop now and stop over and over
again and over and over again look where you are and what you are doing do.
Then you are - in reality - on your way to happiness - or, as they used to call
it: to heaven.
But why in the world did they
construct these incredible mental edifices of "religion"? Because so
many people feel lost in the vast realms of freedom. They ask for fences. And
so they get fences.
But the fences are there to protect
from real dangers. So don't jump over any one of them without knowing, what
will happen if you do. And don't miscalculate. You might end up in a vice, and
you might wish you never had done it. So, unless you need the experience of prison,
stay out of it. If you need contemplation better choose a monastery. And if you
choose the monastery also: don't get caught in any kind of superstition. I tell
you from my own experience: Always again I got caught. Always again I found
myself as if immersed in a dream world, always again I had to wake up. You will
experience that too. So, whatever you do, watch out: Are you dreaming or are
you awake? Whatever subculture you are living in, it has its superstitions and
its superstitious goals. So wake up: There is only one true goal and only your
heart can lead you to it.
So always again, stop and look
where you are and what you do. Exercise one, over and over again exercise one.
Whatever else you do, exercise one will always again bring you back onto your
very own track.