“Our Purpose In Life Is Found Equally Within and Without”

Once, there was a monk who trained at Sogenji under Master Gisan. The monk was doing very good training, going very deep. One day, he got a letter from home telling him: “Please, our temple has burned down! Please come and help us rebuild it.”
The monk replied, “No.”  He refused.
Well, Gisan heard about this and approached the monk, “I hear that your home temple has burned down.”
“Yes.” said the monk.
“I hear that you received a letter asking you to come and help, and you refused?”
“Yes.”
“Why did you refuse to go back and help?” asked Gisan.
The monk replied, “I have not finished my training.  What use is a temple without an enlightened person in it — I’ll just be one more deluded person leading others into delusion.”
The master was furious.  He said, “You have no understanding of what it means to be of service!”

Integrating awakening and responsibility together in the world is very difficult. Beware of the misconception that we can only make a difference after we are different people — “after” we are smart, successful, or enlightened. This is completely delusional. Our wisdom is needed today in this moment! There is often a conflict within us, “Is this my conscience telling me to change the world around me or is this voice actually resistance to letting go of my view?” We are always receiving feedback from within ourselves, our conscience and from the world outside. Whether we receive this feedback from the world or our conscience, it is essential to realize the difference between our awakened compass versus our ego-centric resistance.

The Challenge

Examine occurrences when you are given feedback from the world and from your conscience. Can you tell the difference between awakened feedback and resistance?

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