Excerpt from "The Awareness of Self-Discovery" - by William Samuel
CHAPTER 10
The Parable of the Blossom and the Vine
Once upon a time, a morning glory blossom bloomed on a fence post. It looked out and gave its view of the surrounding pasture. "This is how things are," it said. Hanging from the fence's middle rail, a higher blossom on the vine looked out and saw the same pasture but its view was higher and more expansive. "No, this is how things are," it said.
But the lower blossom argued, "You have been led astray. You have abandoned the original and fundamental view of things. Further more," it said to the higher blossom, "you are talking about things I cannot understand."
Whereupon the bloom hanging from the center rail looked down its lovely petals and averred that from its higher place it could see new things to talk about. "I am in a position to judge the immaturity of your view," it said to the bloom on the bottom. "Quite simply, you are not absolute as I am and you will never understand my view until you reach my level of comprehension or until you have suffered as much as I have."
Now it happened that at the very top of the fence, a third blossom opened its face to the sunshine, looked about, examined itself and discovered that its real identity was not blossom at all but vine; vine entire; vine-being blossom; vine being every leaf, every winding stem and twisting feeler of the morning glory. In new self-knowledge it declared, "While closed within myself as a bud in darkness, I believed I was a blossom; but now, turned from the dark self to the light, I find Identity vastly more than mere bud. VINE am I, above and below, first and last! These blossoms are ME. It is my SELF I see. The vista of EVERY vision is included as this single vine I be."
it said to the bloom on the bottom. "Quite simply, you are not absolute as I am and you will never understand my view until you reach my level of comprehension or until you have suffered as much as I have."
Now it happened that at the very top of the fence, a third blossom opened its face to the sunshine, looked about, examined itself and discovered that its real identity was not blossom at all but vine; vine entire; vine-being blossom; vine being every leaf, every winding stem and twisting feeler of the morning glory. In new self-knowledge it declared, "While closed within myself as a bud in darkness, I believed I was a blossom; but now, turned from the dark self to the light, I find Identity vastly more than mere bud. VINE am I, above and below, first and last! These blossoms are ME. It is my SELF I see. The vista of EVERY vision is included as this single vine I be."
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Needless to say, as we begin living the all-inclusive "vine-view" of singleness, oneness, allness, the old, habitual way of looking at things cries out in awful condemnation. It considers an all-inclusive ONENESS something to speculate about, theorize about, talk and argue about, even write about but not to live—because, living it excludes the "bud-view" as either correct or incorrect. It simply sees the bud view as the bud view, this church's view or that philosophy's view as a view being a view, all a part of the whole picture.
It is well to add, we have not really forsaken the bud view of things so long as we attempt to defend the Vine's views by criticism and condemnation of the buds. This is only more of the same self-condemnation of the buds. The whole purpose of our study of Truth is to awaken to the futility of such self-condemnation and of our reactions to it. When we do, we find ourselves LIVING a new peace beyond the bud's comprehension.
THE TRUTH ABOUT IDENTITY
WE DO NOT HAVE TO LEARN TRUTH! This is a notion to be discarded. Whether we like it or not, we are learning that we already ARE the Truth. There is a whale of a difference. Just the knowledge of this fact speeds Self-discovery. How? It has us properly identified. Since I am the Truth, I am not one who is searching FOR the truth. AS the Truth, I am seeking, finding and becoming aware of the many vistas of my Self-identification. As one attempting to learn the Truth as if it were separate and apart from myself, I am forever falling into the intellectual outhouse of confusion and anguish. Either we will forsake that identification in time or watch ourselves attempt to live its destruction. That one is already swimming in polluted water.
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With that in mind, the following statements can be understood easily:
It is not WHAT we read that matters so much as the knowledge of WHO reads; but if WHAT we read tells us honestly WHO reads, this is to be preferred to the WHAT that indicates (even by inference) that we are a struggling, imperfect, ignorant mortal identity searching for wisdom.
However, once we know who reads, the WHAT can be seen for whatever value it may appear to have, even if it is written from the total absence of a knowledge of WHO really reads.
The literature to be wary of is that which professes to be "absolute" while addressing itself to unawakened mortals. If we cannot find something to read that speaks to the Self as the Self is, then we should get busy and write it—and put it into our own understood language of simple honesty.
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We are not struggling to put off the old man. We are about the effortless business of letting go the BELIEF of an old man, a mortal identity. This is to end the belief that beliefs are really going on—and THEN to find ourselves comprehending what "appearances" are.
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God would be a sadist if one's saving grace depended on a detailed knowledge of philosophy. What kind of god would require continual delving into the abstruse and arcane lore of mysticism or metaphysics as a passport to a Reality that is already ONLY and unchallenged?
