Awakening from Within

No matter where we begin life’s journey, certain moments become momentous and time opens before us and we begin to learn who we are intended to be. While we earnestly set out to find a pathway through the world, we are also being called to find a way that exists within us.

It’s like the old tale from ancient India that tells of a young peasant who sets off wandering and seeking to learn more. After searching in the towns and great cities, after crossing mountain passes, he came upon an old fellow in the depths of a forest, surrounded by attentive pupils. The young seeker desired to join the group and he approached the teacher humbly, and since he had a sincere and pleasing manner, he was accepted and given a place to stay.

Immediately, he began to study earnestly along with the other students. One day, the teacher gathered all the students together and asked them to answer a single question: “What do you love most in the whole world?” All had to consider in a real way what it was that they loved in this world in which we all must love something. The students contemplated the question and began to offer answers. They named all kinds of things, truth and wisdom, love and family, honesty and devotion. Some even named the teacher. In due time, all of them had named what they loved except the young peasant.

The teacher turned to him and asked: “Will you tell us what it is that you love above all things in this world?”

The youth answered that there was something he loved, but added that it embarrassed him to name such a humble and foolish thing. The teacher asked him again and he had no choice, but to answer. Only one thing had come to his mind, so he said it out loud.

“Of all the things of this world, what I love most is the cow I grew up with. I love the sound of its lowing and the shape of its great back that I used to ride upon. I love the swelling of its belly, its great teats, and the sweet milk it would pour out so freely. I love the curving horns on its head and its deep, dark eyes. Of all things, I love that cow.”

The teacher then instructed all the students to go to their little huts and meditate upon that which they loved most in this world. Off they all went and it wasn’t all that long before some began to wander back from the huts and gather in the teaching place again. Eventually, they all came back except the peasant seeker. The teacher arrived and asked if all were present. All except the cow lover, the students were quick to report. The teacher sent some students to fetch him, but despite repeated calls he didn’t come out of his hut. The teacher decided to go over to the hut himself and all the other pupils followed. Even though the teacher knocked on the door and called out to him, the young fellow did not emerge.