One of the most powerful metaphorical stories in the Bible is for me the tale of the prodigal son.   Its innate power derives from its perfect depiction of the human condition, and the light it shines on the nature of its misery and the secret to its salvation.

Because we are blind to the effortless magnificence of our natural state as God itself burst into ecstatic expression, we twist ourselves into powerless contorted caricatures of our divine and perfect spotless nature.   From this dark and fear-driven outcast and desperate state we grasp for sips and crumbs from the table of life from which we have been banished by our own limited and misbegotten self-conceptions.    We who are Kings of the very kingdom we evoke and sustain by our timeless aware-presence, search endlessly for secrets and clues and hints of progress in a world which is the very offspring of our very own being itself.    We spend endless hours and herculean efforts at gleaning clues and tidbits of the ancient wisdom of the masters to climb one more step up the infinite stairway to Heaven, never seeing that the Mind of Christ, the Wisdom of the Buddha, and the ultimate Krishna Consciousness is that which has always been looking from behind our eyes; and never has any ‘other’ ever looked.    All the yearnings and all the efforts of the entire history of human spiritual and religious discipline and practice has been only to gain insight into, pay homage to, and feel closer to the omniscient and timeless Holy Spirit (aware-presence) which views and sustains all from your eyes now!  You indeed are that ultimate mystery of life and existence which you have always been seeking!  Though we shall never objectively or conceptually understand that mystery which we (“I”) am, we can rest in the timeless awareness that we absolutely are that mystery,  independent of time, space, and fantasies of mortal limitation.

It is never possible for me to gaze into anyone’s eyes without silently saying to myself, “Oh, come off it now!  You’re not fooling me!  I know who you are, by God, and frankly I’m really starting to lose my patience with this silly game of yours!  Enough already!” Please stop pretending you have something you really must do, one more amazing theory you absolutely need to investigate, one more robed holyness you must visit to make one more crucial step in this egoic game of advancement.   Come home to where you belong.  Your Father has a robe for you, and the food is outstanding!

“It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found.”       Luke 15:32 KJV

by Les Collins