Bankei And Young Lord

Grow In Sensitivity

The whole emphasis is to remain in a state of receptivity for the unknown to happen to you. Be sensitive, fluid, impressionable, as if some guest is to come and you are waiting. The door is open. Even the breeze passing through the trees or the breeze passing through the dead leaves… you jump to the door. The guest may have come; you are alert. The guest has not come yet. You are simply waiting. In this alertness, one comes to know the ultimate core of reality. The guest never comes really. He is always coming, he is always coming – coming and coming and coming. He is always nearer and nearer and nearer, closer and closer, but he never really comes. You always remain – in waiting. This waiting is beautiful. It is bliss – if you can wait. But then you need a very sensitive mind. Mediocre, stupid minds won’t be of any help there. A stupid mind will say, “Now come in; otherwise I am going to close the door and rest. I have waited long.”

Let’s do one technique to become sensitive:

First grow in sensitivity. Just close your doors, make the room dark and light a small candle. Sit near the candle with a very loving attitude – rather, with a prayerful attitude. First take a bath, throw cold water on your eyes, then sit in a very prayerful mood before the candle. Look at it and forget everything else. Just look at the small candle – the flame and the candle. Go on looking at it. After five minutes you will feel that many things are changing in the candle. They are not changing in the candle, remember; your eyes are changing.

With a loving attitude, with the whole world closed out, with total concentration, with a feeling heart, just go on looking at the candle and the flame. Then you will discover new colors around the flame, new shades which you were never aware were there. They are there; the whole rainbow is there. Wherever light is, the rainbow is there because light is all color. You need a subtle sensitivity. Just feel it and go on looking at it. Even if tears start flowing, go on looking at it. Those tears will help your eyes to be more fresh.

Sensitivity must grow. Your every sense must become more alive. Then you can experiment with this technique. ‘Feel the cosmos as a translucent ever-living presence.’ Everywhere light is – in many, many shapes, forms, light is happening everywhere. Look at it! And everywhere light is because the whole phenomenon is based on the foundation of light. Look at a leaf or a flower or a rock, and sooner or later you will feel rays coming out of it. Just wait patiently. Don’t be in a hurry because nothing is revealed when you are in a hurry.

Wait silently with anything, and you will discover a new phenomenon which was always there, but of which you were not alert – not aware of it. Your mind will become completely silent as you feel the presence of the ever-living existence. You will be just a part in it, just a note in the great symphony. No burden, no tension…the drop has fallen into the ocean. But great imagination will be needed in the beginning, and the sensitivity training will be helpful.

This technique also changes your body chemistry. If you feel the whole world is filled with life, light, then you are changing your body chemistry. And this is a chain reaction. When your body chemistry changes, you can look at the world and it will look more alive. And if it looks more alive, your body chemistry will change again, and then it becomes a chain.