A Being in the World. Part II

He watched the stars wheel around and around over his confused head. Imagined constellations, retrograde planets and gods squared off against each other paraded at what, from where he stood, was a heavenly height far too distant.

That man was born naked and innocent, unacquainted with the concrete jungle that trapped him in an endless round of challenges.

He walked long through his life, protected by the angel of his tender goodness, who led him through dangers with a flickering but steady invisible candle.

When the man was a child, he loved the life he was living. And instead of clinging to it, he chose to venture forward on his own initiative.

And though he had cried before, one day he felt for the first time what pain was.

All around, a society had been built by his own humankind, born naked and innocent, yet acquainted with the safety of concrete, the school that divides, the soulless competition to survive alone.

His psychological wounds grew up with him, making him a repressed, resentful, lonely being.

He, in his pure attempt to bring clarity to his untouched understanding of the world, became part of it. He entered for good into a confusion that only sent him around and around beneath stars ever more distant, at a height ever more unreachable.

He, searching for the love inspired in him by the memory of that invisible candle of naked, innocent perception, fell mercilessly into the abyss of animality that cruelly fed humankind.

Oh, the whims of capricious gods! Oh, silent routine that made him push the rock childishly through every nook and cranny with self-pity and suffering!

That sentence lasted an eternity that felt like too much.

When the child ate the fruit of knowledge, he became a man. And instead of clinging to it, he chose to venture into watching with his own awareness.

And though he had felt pain before, one day he felt for the first time the origin of his hellish perception.

All around, the oppressive world was the expression of an anguish rooted in the search for love. People were not truly cruel; they only lived screaming that they were empty and lost in their own confusion.

The acceptance of his misery grew up with him, and he kept on growing, now toward an inquiry into his own inner reality.

He, falling silent before the storm that besieged him through all his weaknesses, learned to let it pass — not by making himself strong against it, but by being, in his own flesh, that untouched understanding that no longer wanted to understand anything.

He, giving up every struggle, sat unmoved, grateful for the blessings that sometimes embrace him with tender goodness and other times, from the heavenly heights, shake the very foundations of his perception.

He embraced in wonder the night that let him see the stars from where he stood. And nothing more was needed to be able to reach them. It was enough not to resist the absence of the sun for the sun to begin unfolding its rays of contemplation.

Oh, divine flow of presence! Oh, unconditional peace that taught him that the winding road the world follows honors the perfect straightness of his free steps!

When the master smiled as he joyfully pushed the rock through every blessing, he melted into life itself. And that was when the stars stopped to watch, and dawn broke for an eternity that will never be too much.