Writing on the sand

The author uses the imagery of sand and a magic slate to illustrate the impermanence of life and knowledge. Everything we understand or realize only holds value in the present moment, because the page of existence seeks to remain eternally blank to welcome the new.

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Summary: The author uses the imagery of sand and a magic slate to illustrate the impermanence of life and knowledge. Everything we understand or realize only holds value in the present moment, because the page of existence seeks to remain eternally blank to welcome the new. True realization is not an archive of memories, but a living and immediate consciousness.

This lucidity regarding our fragility mandates humility, an essential virtue for committing to an authentic spiritual path. According to the author, The Path is not a simple accumulation of knowledge, but a process of profound questioning that requires letting the "old self" die to be reborn in spirit. This "Kingdom" spoken of by Christ, or this state of Satçitananda, is not found outside or in books, but in the deepest part of everyone.

Finally, the text insists on the primacy of practice over theory. While stories and myths can inspire, only the Observance of the Agya (the three pillars) and taking action following the Revelation allow one to truly experience bliss. The ultimate goal is to remain present, from sunrise to sunset, in the unity of the instant.

Text

You can write the most sensible, the most accomplished, the most wise or the most beautiful things, if you write them on the sand, the wind and the waves will inevitably erase them. Once these beautiful sentences are gone, who will remember them, what purpose will they have served?

This does not change the fact that what was written was beautiful, true and full of common sense. These sentences were useful first for the man or woman who traced them on the sand and, perhaps also, for those who were there at that moment and were able to read them. But the moment changes, the wind blows, the waves come with their tongues of water and everything disappears.

The sand is both stable and unstable: it is stable because it is constantly present, and unstable because what is written on it is quickly erased. This sand is the present moment, you can write important pages of your life on it, the next moment the page is blank again, like those magic slates of my childhood.

Always writing something new

The page of the moment is made for writing new things, always. What matters is not what was written on it, but what is being written now. That is awakening, that is realization, that is understanding: we understand in the moment, but it is not carved in stone.

When you write your understanding on a lasting medium, you can read it later and reread it again. Perhaps it will still resonate within you, but the essential remains what you grasped in the moment. To each moment its understanding, its realization.

When you move forward on a path, what matters is where you are walking now, not where you passed before. You can have memories of past landscapes, but your steps never rest on the past.

You do things in the moment to please God and enjoy His Grace while you can. We are not much, a mere nothing can extinguish us. When you are lucid about the human condition, you can only be humble. Those who are not, are not lucid.

The Path: an authentic spiritual path

Impermanence should lower the pride of many vanities. Humility is an essential virtue on a true spiritual path. What is a true spiritual path? It is a path that challenges you, helps you let the old person you think you are die, in spirit, so that you may be reborn. This is what Christ said to Nicodemus:

"Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God." (John 3:3)

To be born again, one must first die (in spirit)... And of what Kingdom was Christ speaking? Was he speaking of a kingdom in the sky? No, he was speaking of a Kingdom within you, within each of us.

"If those who lead you say to you, 'See, the Kingdom is in the sky,' then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you, 'It is in the sea,' then the fish will precede you. But the Kingdom is within you and it is outside of you!" (Thomas, logion 3)

It is inside and outside, but where is it closest? Inside, obviously! So it is inside that you must search, if you are interested. Not everyone is interested in the Kingdom, some are into football, others cars or sex. To find within yourself bliss, the minimum requirement is to be interested in it.

This is where humility comes into play. Otherwise, how would you feel the need to let the old person you think you are die? Finding it quite fine, you will not want it to disappear.

Everything happens in the moment and this is the purpose of The Path: that you be as conscious as possible in the moment. The three pillars of Agya have this goal: that from sunrise to sunset, you are present.

"The One is since, and forever, entirely in the moment." (Bhaktimàrga, 1)

Agya and its pillars give you the tools to do it, but will not do it for you: it is up to you to act! You can build charming theories, but a theory will never help you find this Kingdom Christ spoke of. Many awakened masters have spoken of this Kingdom with other words like Satchitananda (the consciousness of bliss)... If the word differs, the reality it describes is identical. It is strange how often men attach themselves to words rather than to the experience they describe!

Practice is everything

To observe the Agya and practice the pillars, it is necessary to have received the Revelation (initiation). All the books in the world, however inspiring they may be, cannot lead you to the Kingdom; only spiritual practice can. There are fascinating books that will bring you nothing but a distraction or a passing inspiration. But an inspiration to do what? To act! Take the Mahabharata, for example... It is fascinating, but after reading it, did it bring you closer to the Kingdom?

It is like "The Silmarillion" by J.R.R. Tolkien: the universe is consistent, the genealogies are worthy of the Bible, and yet it is all a pure invention. Many books considered sacred are of this kind: myths.

No book will bring you closer to bliss, unless it inspires you to walk on a true spiritual path, that is to say; "A path that challenges you deeply and sends you back to the inside of yourself."

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