How Thick Is Your Marble?

We might assume that we have far to go, to get to Dewachen/Heaven/Enlightenment. This very high place. What if we were there now, and that there wasn’t anywhere to go? We just hadn’t noticed, as we aren’t looking. It’s a matter of transforming the impure into the pure. Getting rid of the excess.

Michelangelo saw his figures directly in the marble. He said, “I only remove the excess to reveal the inspiration within.” As spiritual practitioners, we go a step further, and look beyond the beautiful physical form because the real beauty is in the eye of the beholder! It is in our own deep appreciation of being.

One of the problems with spiritual organisations is uniformed embellishments, especially robes. Although this is a cultural reminder and inspiration, there is an assumption of unattainable holiness, of moral and spiritual excellence – which may actually be the case. But we have watch out for being too much in awe, as it puts a distance between us and the ‘holiness’.

Remember: it’s not about someone else’s enlightened state. It’s about ours: the deep appreciation is in the eye of the beholder. Our moral and spiritual excellence.

If we imbue someone else with qualities that we appreciate but think we do not have,
our marble just gets thicker.

Holiness is getting rid of our thickness!