Flashlight

In a sense we are enlightened from the very beginning, endowed with a completely good basic mind.
Dalai Lama

So we have a pretty good mind?  The problem, I suppose, is what we do with that good mind. 

I imagine being given a wonderful flashlight  by which we can see everything clearly.  We lift it up to the world around us and we see all that we are meant to see. We turn it inward and we  see even more.  Everything is so bright, so warm, so beautiful!

The Flashlight

This flashlight  is simply a tool  we have been given to make our  way through this world. It works perfectly at the time of issue!  We are  told if we hold it in the right way, if we clean it off when we are supposed to and if we take good care of it...it will serve us very well throughout our time here.  We will constantly be able to see the joy and beauty that exists around us. We will see all, including Self, as it  truly is.

Hmmm!  The problem is many of us have not followed those instructions and have not cared for our amazing flashlights. 

Lazy Hold

We get lazy and allow our arms to drop to the earth so we only see the "earth" or earthly things.   The effort to lift this light  up so it shines inside or up into the heavens becomes too much...so we happily focus on the bit of earth this lazy grasp provides. The amount of distance we can see ahead  and around us is very limited with this hold.  We tend to see only what is immediately around our bodies and we begin to believe that is all there is to this world, this Life.

Dim View

We also do not clean it off like we are supposed to...Most of our flashlights are covered with a thin or thick veil of worldly dust and grim so it does not shine brightly.  In fact , the view it provides becomes so dim  the world around us begins to look a bit dark and scary.  When we  do look at something with this dim light it is distorted and we cannot see clearly what it is. We are often so sure it is something that will harm us. 

We do what we can to protect ourselves from whatever lurks up ahead beyond our limited perspective. .  We look to something "out there" that  we can't see to save us. Ego, liking this dim view we have,  hides up in the shadows and it keeps calling out to us. It  keeps guiding us into something better that it promises is up ahead.  We follow blindly, never finding what it says we will find.

A Lack of Care

We also don't take care of this light, this tool that was meant to serve us.    It stops working the way it was meant to because we didn't maintain it.  It short wires at times or even burns out. It becomes temperamental and we become  afraid. we  will lose the little light it offers.  We put all of our energy into protecting and preserving this small amount of unpredictable light our flashlights now offer.  We in a sense...become slaves to it,  used by it,  instead of using it as the instrument it was meant to be.

The Mind is Our Flashlight

Hmm! Isn't that what we do with these minds? We don't point them in the right direction and become limited by our perceptions.  We allow our "mental modifications" to form a veil over them so everything becomes distorted.  Our views are distorted and limited and we become afraid.  We don't take care of them.  We are not careful with what we put in them filling them with junk that will harm them and they appear to short wire and burn out.  We become even more afraid of losing the bit of light they offer us. We allow our "monkey minds" to eventually run the show.

Not Too Late!

It's not too late.  We can  reclaim, clean up and recharge these minds.  We can make them the wonderful tools they are meant to be. We just need to  hold  them...gently... in stillness and quiet while we point them inward.  We just need to recognize the veil of ego over them and smoothly  wipe it off.  We just need to plug them back into the right charger...the right energy Source...the Source of all Life.

We need to see once again that our minds are simply tools meant to serve us and we need not become servants to them or to ego.

It's all good.