JoeMarshallaPhD
How badly do you want it? The depth of desire for your own awakening.
These are but a couple quintessential questions one must ask themselves while on their journey of awakening. To illustrate the depth of desire required to fully realize one’s self, I offer the following story. There once was a monk who had been doing his practice for most of his life yet for some reason he felt he was missing something. It seemed to him that all the other monks had an understanding of something that he seemed to be missing. This bothered him for months and months until one day he decided to ask his teacher about it. He said, “Teacher, what am I missing? What do I need to realize or experience to ascend to the next level?” The teacher smiled and motioned for the monk to follow him. They walked out of the temple and through the woods until finally they ended up at the lake. The teacher walked into the lake, turned around, and then motioned for the monk to follow. Once both were facing each other in the lake the teacher placed his hands on the monk shoulders and pushed him under the water. The monk surrendered and waited for some miraculous moment… some
christening, some miracle or some form of awakening... Yet nothing happened. The underwater monk was running out of breath and became a little concerned. He struggled to hold his breath as long as he could still waiting for some transformation to happen. When he could no longer hold his breath he began to stand up to get some air and to his shock, the teacher held him under the water. The two of them struggled for some time. Every now and then the teacher would allow the monk up just enough to get the tiniest of breaths... But it wasn’t enough to sustain life. Finally the monk was about to give up and surrender to his fate when he gave one last push to surge to the top. Right at the moment of the monks upward push, the teacher let go and the monk surfaced gasping and coughing to catch his breath. The monk looked at his teacher and said, “Are you insane? Why were you trying to drown me? I ought to kill you for trying to kill me!” The teacher looked straight into the monks eyes and said, “My dear son, only when you struggle and want your liberation as much as you wanted that breath, will you find what you are looking for.” The monk smiled and finally understood. So my friends… How badly do you want it? Do you want it as much as you want your breath?
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Photo: Joe Marshalla PhD
How deeply do you yearn for your enlightenment or self understanding? How committed are you to yourself to really understand who you are?
Joe Marshalla PhD is the bestselling author of “Repeatlessness - An Owner’s Manual for the Human Mind” He is endorsed by Ram Dass, Wayne Dyer, Jack Canfield, Harold Bloomfield, John Demartini, the New York Times, Oprah’s reading group and many more.
Dr Joe Marshalla
