Being Human

If there are any heights to ascend or levels to attain,

if there is any state that one can yearn to achieve,

it is the state of being at ease with oneself.

We have a lot of fancy words about things, but I think, when we can be comfortable with what we are, that is really quite somethingto be at ease with what we are!

To be at ease with being human,

to be at ease with all the different things

that a human being can do,

and the things that a human being cannot do.

To be at ease with all of that.

To stop wishing that this form

could do things that it was not designed to do.

To recognize the limitations that this form has,

and the strengths that it has.

To be at ease with all of that!

To recognize, when this form gets angry, that this form simply got angry. It’s not the beginning and end of everything. When we feel our emotions or have some thoughts, dreams or desires, we have to recognize that these are the natural conditions and processes of the human being. They’re not things pertaining to some other species.

But so many different paths, religions, and philosophies try to make us not be human beings. They try to reformulate our humanness. They try to make it something else, as if there were some gigantic reward in that. But I don’t know when these rewards ever arrive.

In the meantime, we have day after day passing and we don’t understand what it is to be a being. We inflict a lot of damage on ourselves. We get down on ourselves.

We feel as if we have failed

because we set up things for us to accomplish

that are not to be accomplished as human beings.

Even if these things were to be accomplished, some of them are absolutely ridiculous.

Poonja-ji continually tried to show

everybody he came in contact with

that it was all right to be a human being,

that we don’t need to strive for

some other definition of what we are.

He did that by example through his life, by the things he did, by the things he talked about. That’s one of the reasons I love my teacher so much.

Even though people often didn’t want to see how human he was, he continually demonstrated that there was no difference between him and any of the people coming to see him. He kept saying over and over again that there was no difference. And if there was a difference, it was only that he was comfortable with his being-ness.

So to be comfortable with what we are is not an easy thing. It sounds good, but it’s not easy. All kinds of things come up on a daily basis that make it very difficult to be comfortable with what we areand we have to get up every morning and deal with our lives.

We have no excuse for not looking at our daily lives,

no excuse for not making some changes

when we think they are appropriate.

We are not helpless.

We have choices.