Lump of Clay

Do not error.

To not error means perfect honesty.

Those who are imbued with perfect honesty are in accord with the virtues of heaven and earth.

To be in accord with the virtues of heaven and earth is to be in harmony with what is natural.

To be in harmony with what is natural results in avoiding errors.

Avoiding errors means to be honest.

To be honest leads to trust, intimacy and love.

Trust, intimacy and love result from the

cultivation of honesty in all one’s affairs.

Perfect honesty means to not error,

To not error is most difficult to avoid.

Difficulty in avoiding error stems from being out of sync with that which is natural.

Being out of sync with that which is natural is to error.

To error is evidenced by dishonesty.

Dishonesty occurs as a result of one’s own thoughts, actions and speech.

One’s own thoughts, actions and speech can lead to distrust, a lack of intimacy and ultimately hatred: the antithesis of love.

Hatred is to be avoided at all cost,

Avoiding hatred comes from cultivating honesty in all one’s affairs.

Cultivating honesty in all one’s affairs leads to rigorous honesty,

Rigorous honesty approaches perfect honesty.

Perfect honesty is heaven on earth.

Heaven on earth is a loving person who is loved in return.

A loving person who is loved in return has achieved true intimacy, which was achieved by earning trust, which was achieved by rigorous honesty.

Rigorous honesty is being wary of thoughts, actions and speech.

Being wary of thoughts, actions and speech avoids dishonesty.

Avoiding dishonesty leads to trust, trust grows into intimacy and blossoms fully into love.

Love for one’s self and others.

Beyond love for one’s self and others lies heaven on earth.

Heaven on earth is knowing all the way to heaven is heaven.

Heaven is enlightenment.

Enlightenment is the knowledge there is no heaven and earth, no self and others, no us and them, no you and me.

This knowledge is fully developed awareness.

Fully developed awareness is unity consciousness.

Achieving unity consciousness does not allow for dualistic thinking.

Dualistic thinking is a roadblock to heaven (enlightenment).

Roadblocks to enlightenment are unnatural occurrences of separatism.

Separatism results from a lack of unity consciousness.

A lack of unity consciousness results from dualistic thinking.

Dualistic thinking is a delusional belief in a self-entity swimming in a sea of other self-entities.

Believing in a self-entity leads to us and them and you and me thoughts.

These thoughts are the source of much pain and suffering.

Pain and suffering that can be avoided by the elimination of the cause of pain and suffering

The cause of pain and suffering is ignorance.

Ignorance of three fundamentals of existence:

Suffering, impermanence and unity (no self).

Suffering which can be avoided by developing an awareness of its causes (ignorance) and cultivating skills (knowledge) to overcome them.

Avoiding the desire for permanence in an ever-changing, impermanent world.

And, finally, a growing appreciation and direct experience of unity consciousness.

A consciousness that negates dualistic thinking and embraces a belief in the Oneness in all things.

Do not error.

To not error is to behold the One in all things.

To behold the One in all things is a blissful state of harmony.

A blissful state of harmony is achieved during transcendent moments.

Transcendent moments come through cultivation of unity consciousness.

The cultivation of unity consciousness is achieved through meditation.

Meditation leads to conscious contact.

Conscious contact is a feeling of being fused to nature, call it god, a higher power, the universe or just the way.

This feeling of fusion is a direct experience of oneness with all and is pervasive.

Achieving the pervasive means being a part of all and realizing all is me.

All is me means there is no “other.”

No other is clarity.

When clarity is achieved one can fully appreciate poems like this one by Madam Kuan:

       ‘Twixt you and me

       There’s too much emotion.

       That’s the reason why

There’s such a commotion!

Take a lump of clay,

Wet it, pat it,

And make an image of me,

And an image of you.

Then smash them, crash them,

And add a little water.

Break them and re-make them

Into an image of you,

And an image of me.

Then in my clay, there’s a little of you.

And in your clay, there’s a little of me.

And nothing ever shall us sever;

Living, we’ll sleep in the same quilt,

And dead, we’ll be buried together.