Just a Man

Transcript

This is a beautiful thought, I hope it appears beautiful to you.

What am I talking about?

The concept of just a man.

So many months ago I can’t remember when, I was sitting in meditation. Perhaps I was meditating on a guru like Baba Muktananda, perhaps the thought of Jesus Christ and I asked myself “its funny, how can somebody be such a great saint just being a man, just a human being just like any one of us?”

Being born with flesh, having a human body. Being born with the prejudices and biases that we are subject to due to our external situation of birth. And our own inner nature. All these things, just a human being perhaps.

Even one that might be divinely inspired or influence perhaps, some form of divinity within them, just a man. Just a human being.

An answer in my head came almost immediately, a little voice said it’s because he is just a man that he is such a great saint.

Exactly the thing I thought would be an obstacle actually affirms the greater truth. Its interesting how these paradoxes work.

When we think something can be an obstacle for truth but actually that creates a deeper truth. Being subject to biases, prejudices, external influences of birth and society. Subject to the whims of history.

Even having all those experiences and all of those obstacles, if someone does become a great saint with those very human limitations around them then that certainly must mean they really are a great saint.

Sometimes people on the left make these arguments, cases saying how the idea of a self made human, a self made man is a myth. It always depends on external sources.

If you come up and get a hand up from parents, like a great big million dollar loan from your father. Ok, that’s not really a self made man, a person who has had a lot of help in this world.

The interesting thing is the external success has those external factors involved in it. Internal success doesn’t relate to the external world in the same way.

Whatever the circumstances of birth or death, whatever the circumstances we all the equal opportunity for inner success.

We all have the opportunity to ask and listen to what is going on within us.

Now as I say that I begin to doubt myself a bit.

Aren’t there certain people or certain environments where someone would have access to more spiritual ideas and have a better chance of self realization?

I think that’s true but even so I think that someone from quite humble beginnings, someone perhaps that is even illiterate, if we look at the history of saints and great beings we can see these things do not present obstacles when someone is determined enough.

Of course many people like to get into this nature versus nuture debate, what is inherently in a human being and how much do external circumstances affect them?

This is a third element, an individuals will, how much are you willing to look inside? How much are you wiling to seek answers?

When we look at someone like Lord Buddha, of course Siddhartha Gautama was born in very wonderful circumstances. He was born into a wealthy home as a prince. His obstacle was that his father wanted to prevent him from seeing suffering and sickness because he didn’t want his son to become this enlightened being.

That’s one version of the myth of Lord Buddha.

Even though he was born into these wonderful circumstances, was very literate and had a lot of access to royal libraries and this kind of thing, that actually held him back.

In the end the determining factor was not his external circumstances that is the wealth that he was born into. Or the poverty he subjected himself to.

The determining quality when he decided to sit under that Bodhi tree and meditate for a month without end, the determining quality was his own decision.

Just like any of us, whatever circumstances we are in, whether extreme wealth or extreme poverty, we can all decide to be present, to notice the current moment, to be aware of what is within us, to notice our own consciousness. We all have that ability, that can never be destroyed, attenuated.

Your decision, your presence, your consciousness is always with you regardless of your circumstances or what kind of person you are. Being a human being you are as qualified as any great saint to reveal that.