Harmony Quote

Entered into Divine Mind, herself made over to That, the soul at first contemplates  that realm;  but once she sees that which is higher still, she leaves all else aside. Thus when I enter a house rich in beauty, I might gaze about and admire the varied splendor before the master appears, but once seeing him I would ignore all else and look to him alone. 

PLOTINUS

This body is not me. It is the house in which I live. If you say that I am so many inches tall, or that I weigh such and such number of pounds, I will reply, “You are not describing me. You are talking about my address.”

Since I don’t identify myself with my body, I don’t associate other people very much with their physical appearance either. If someone asks me, “How tall is John?” I have to take time to try to picture him, then use a mental tape measure to try to remember his height. When someone asks me how old a person, it takes a certain amount of effort for me to recall even what decade he or she is in. The more we dwell on the physical appearance and age of others, the more we are conscious of our own appearance and age. 

We should be concerned less about packaging and concerned more with the contents. When I look at people, I like to look at their eyes. These are the windows into the Resident: the Lord, the Self. Gradually, as we become more and more spiritually aware, we will be looking straight into people’s eyes and deep into their souls.

 

From Words To Live By by Eknath Easwaran, founder of the Blue Mountain Center of Meditation, copyright 2005; reprinted by permission of Nilgiri Press, P. O. Box 256, Tomales, Ca  94971, www.bmcm.org.