The More we Learn the Less we Know

I lived for a time with someone who did not function from the centre of rational thinking.  This does not mean that He was incapable of rational thinking, quite the opposite. In fact, i never met with anyone who was so practical, ingenious and down to earth, all in one. He tended to use rational thinking as a tool, He was not ruled by the rational mind. Someone who can live and function from an inner intuitive sense of spontaneous clarity will leave no footprints in the world and will move through life with spontaneous expressions of light and joy. Such a being lives with an intensity which is always fresh, completely un-contrived and uncompromisingly relevant.

To have had the chance to come within the orbit of someone who moves in complete harmony with the present moment is an extraordinary privilege and something rare and beautiful to behold.

We live in an age in which book learning and 'artificial' knowledge fill almost all of our waking hours. We are endlessly distracted and preoccupied with things which are not intrinsically important to our inner well being. In fact, our educational system is founded upon the very principles that remove us from the sacred inner knowledge which lies at the very heart of our existence.

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The Mystery of Now

Photo Credit: Mandala Madness

In the early nineteen-nineties, I met an aged Tibetan Lama in the Himalayan foothills of the Kathmandu Valley. Back then He was already well into his eighties.

He looked like something out of a Santa Claus play or some magical mystery novel.

He had pure white hair and a long grey beard that seemed to extend into the four directions like tiny antennas. He wore an interesting array of clothing that often consisted of bloomers or a lungi, Birkenstock s, long fur-lined capes that reached all the way to His ankles, or, when duty called, red robes draped in an extensive white and red handwoven silk shawl.

Chadral Rinpoche, despite being a very venerable Lama, has absolutely no airs whatsoever about Him. He lives, breathes and moves in the ever-fresh atmosphere of the present moment. And yes, i use the present tense because He is still alive and well and now crossed the venerable age of 100.

For me, and many others who have had the good fortune to meet Him, He is the living example, par excellence, of a vital awareness that embraces everything, whatever it may be, in a completely spontaneous and uncontrived way.

During the years when I was privileged to live near Him, it never occurred to me to ask Him for formal teachings. I simply felt that every day and moment in His presence was in itself the highest possible teaching.

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