We are all teachers.
"Beyond the edge of the world there’s a space where emptiness and substance neatly overlap, where past and future form a continuous, endless loop. And, hovering about, there are signs no one has ever read, chords no one has ever heard." - Haruki Murakami
Whether you like it or not - you need to go there. It’s your birthright to travel beyond the edge of the world. To travel from the known, into the great mystery, and come back with a little piece of divinity. To journey into the non-conceptual realm of experience - and feel things you never thought possible. And try your best to distill it into words. There is no harder task, but there is no task more worthwhile.
“You are in danger of living a life so comfortable and soft, that you will die without ever realising your true potential” David Goggins
The reason we must go beyond, the reason we must journey into the unknown - is because we are all teachers. There is not a single moment of rest in this life - everything is always interacting with everything else. As much as you are being created by the world around you - so you are creating others with your speech, your actions, and your dreams. Don’t focus solely on your personal co-creation, for you are also an agent of your community’s transformation. We have a duty to wake each other up. Which means we have a duty to go beyond and seek truth.
“Fairy tales do not tell children that dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children that dragons can be killed” G.K. Chesterton
You have to go beyond the edge because everyone knows it’s there, but not everyone knows how to get there. To guide others along the path you have to walk it yourself. You have to open your own eyes first.
“One way to open your eyes to unnoticed beauty is to ask yourself, ‘What if I had never seen this before? What if I knew I would never see it again?”- Rachel Carson
Sit in reverential silence. Rest in awe at the miracle of awareness. Recall how bewildering and unknowable existence truly is. Remember time and time again how quickly it all flows away.
“Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won’t come in.” -Isaac Asimov
Learn how to scrub your own windows, and share this living knowledge with others. Not through a sermon or a classroom lesson - but through how you comport yourself.
There is a story I once read in a book by OSHO called The Empty Boat. A Prince thought he was a rooster, and despite hiring the best doctors money could buy - no one could convince him otherwise. He was cured by a mystic. Instead of speaking to the Prince from a position of authority - the mystic pretended to be a rooster as well. By meeting the Prince where he was, the mystic could eventually persuade him to reclaim his human identity.
The mystic knew the limits of reason. You cannot explain away an illusion. Illusions disappear when you see the trick - and if you cannot already see it - you need a teacher disguised as a friend. And that is what we all are to each other. Teachers disguised as friends, brothers, sisters, mothers, and fathers.
“Know all the theories, master all the techniques, but as you touch a human soul be just another human soul.” Carl Jung
Don’t use words to convey the wordless. Use the wordless to convey words. If I think I’m a rooster - don’t tell me with words why I’m deluded…show me why.
“Constantly be aware
Without stopping.
When the aware mind is present,
It senses the formlessness of things” Tao-hsin
Beyond the edge the world loses its contours. Bring your aware mind to this place. For it is here that all of your treasure is buried.
“It is the realm that we enter in sleep. We carry it within ourselves forever. All the ogres and secret helpers of our nursery are there, all the magic of childhood. And more important, all the life-potentialities that we never managed to bring to adult realisation, those other portions of ourself, are there; for such golden seeds do not die” Joseph Campbell
Go here while awake. Go here and experience a vivid renewal - and share this vitality with the world.
It is as it is.
-Sasha
Soundtracks to your Journey