Teach Me How To Be Strong
“I want to know how to be strong?” said the young man to the old hermit, breathless from climbing the mountain to reach the damp cave.
“For what purpose do you want to know how to be strong?” asked the old hermit.
“If I know how to be strong I can fight against any challenge, I can be a winner, I can do good things in this world and I will achieve the success that I want in life,” said the young man.
“So you want to achieve success and get what you want? Well, this is an entirely different skillset and understanding. From your question, I can already know that you have no understanding of strength or success. You imagine that strength is power in an external sense, you fight against your own imagination, you have been told what to believe and you can only dream of what there is to overcome. I cannot teach you.” The old hermit stared through the young man and exhaled deeply.
I'm Ready To Learn, I Know I Want To Learn How To Be Strong
The young man dropped his head and in a frustrated tone he shouted at his feet “I’m ready, to learn, I know what I want, please teach me!”
When the young man looked up the old hermit had disappeared. There, in front of him stood an owl, staring through him, motionless. The owl fluffed his feathers as if inhaling deeply and produced a small seed from inside his beak. He dropped it on the ground and promptly sat on it. Simultaneously, the weather turned and strong winds and rain started to batter the mouth of the cave. The owl did not move. The young man took shelter deeper inside. The weather remained tumultuous outside and he fell into a deep sleep.
When he awoke, the young man was disturbed to hear the growling winds and violent storm still howling outside. He walked towards the mouth of the cave to find the owl standing firm, his feathers billowing, his body undulating in the wind. He was anchored to the rock by his long talons, as if he were part of the stone itself. The creature looked enormous against the small young tree that was swaying in the wind beside him.
How Is This Even Possible?
Confused, the young man wondered how long he had been sleeping. Where had this young tree come from? It was not there before, could it possibly be the seed that had emerged from the mouth of the owl? Could it possibly have grown this fast? He stepped closer to the owl and the small tree. It’s impossible, he thought to himself. There is no earth for this tree to extend it’s roots, and yet it seemed to be anchored to the rock floor of the cave, apparently nourished by the rainwater flooding into the cave.
How is this even possible, wondered the young man, feeling small and confused in the face of the vision in front of him. He stared at the young tree, which actually seemed to be growing in front of his eyes. Struck by overwhelming feelings of disbelief, he sat down and put his head in his hands. Was he dreaming?
What Have You Done To Me?
When he finally lifted his head from his hands the weather had calmed and the sun was starting to break through the clouds to deliver the morning light. Almost instantly, he felt the warm rays breach the dampness in his body.
To his surprise, as he looked towards the sun, it was the old hermit, rather than the owl, who was sitting next to the small tree, speaking gently to it and praising the little sapling. The sapling seemed to turn his small leaves towards the words of the old hermit, as if breathing them in with gratitude.
“Who are you? Where did this tree come from? Where is the owl? What did you do to me?” demanded the young man in a state close to panic.
“That’s right,” said the old hermit, “still so much easier to blame than to engage when we cannot stretch to find our understanding.”
“Be at peace my friend. Breathe”
I Want You To Let Go
The old hermit looked at him with gentle eyes. “I will teach you how to create everything you want in your life when you’re ready. For you to be ready, you must first be willing to stand INSIDE the flow of life, rather than rush to take shelter and bury yourself in the safety of what you think you know.
My dear fellow, while you shelter yourself inside your knowns and logic, life is manifesting all around you in nature. Life is flourishing. Embracing every moment as an opportunity, building momentum, while you see only a fraction of your potential experience, separating yourself from acceptance and flow. Where there is resistance and fighting there is no flow.”
Observe In Wonder Across Nine Cycles
“Come back to me in 9 years. When you have studied the flow of energy from season to season, in 9 different cycles. Return when you have seen the impossible happen, and you can trust it. Let’s try again when you can let go and you have broken your attachment to your need for certainty and control.”
“Visit me once again when you may even have an insight into the concept of connection, and the small part that we, as humans, play in this miraculous life energy. You will have seen energy and life in motion. You will be in flow. You will be almost ready to release your inherent dogma and set yourself free.”
“Only then can you know yourself. Only from this place can you know anything else. When you know how to BECOME life in motion, you are ready “
