You Don't Need a Bodhi Tree: To Find the Light

By Tess Marcin

Whatever it takes!

Not everyone knows about the bodhi tree and Buddha...more people know about Newton and his tree.

However. . . there is no denying that both Buddha and Newton were enlightened, that they found insight.

This book urges the reader to seek enlightenment, to seek insight, but not by sitting under any special tree. The reader can sit anywhere because the place he will find what he is looking for is within the self.

Throughout the history of man he has ever been on the move. Like Diogenes with his lantern in search of an honest man, historical man has been searching for insight, for enlightenment about . . . self.

Many words have been written, many doors have been opened, but the one door, the one where all the answers lie, has been the most stubborn.

Humanity; educated man, confused man, where has life led him? Up and down some strange paths, in and out of some strange doors. Man prides himself on how he has managed his time on this planet. Man has overlooked the most important facet. . . He has not kept uppermost in his life the one thought that is most insightful. Man, the human, travels in cycles. In the cycle of human time he learns the lessons, he experiences life. Within the circle of eternality, in the life of no time, he, either atones for his errors in judgment, or he continues to build on his good judgment, as spirit.

Humanity, man vs spirit, life vs life, intertwined for all eternity.

The journey awaits us no matter which side of the threshold we find ourselves on, because we live. The we, the us, the I, the me, the self. No one has ever seen the image behind these words, but it is there.

While here, living this life in the physical we make daily choices. We really make choices in the passing of each second. We make good choices, we make bad choices. They are our choices, we are the creators of the thought that gives action to these choices. And yet . . . The human has the nasty habit of denying the responsibility of the action of choice. Good choice . . . Pat on the back. Bad choice . . . Someone else made him do it. Ego never rests, it is always front and center.

Man has been gifted with creativity. He astounds himself by his inventiveness, but too many times he does not give credit where credit is due. Too many deny the existence of the One who gave them life. Too many believe that out of nowhere they arrived fully gifted by their own efforts. Out of the slime, the human crawled forth in all his creative glory, in all the glory of his many mysterious parts. Now that is ego riding high.

The book may zig, it may zag, it may step off the path, it may take a side path, but it is only imitating the progress of life. Each zig, each zag, each step, has a tendency to pick up a nugget of thought. Thoughts leap from one to the next, linger a moment and its on to the next one. Mind, and spirit, metaphysics, life, self, wisdom and knowledge, space, universe, the future, light, insight, enlightenment, etc. All represented in this book by the thoughts of the writer.

One can only hope that the reader finds his insight, his enlightenment, expanding, growing, as he reads the book. That he finds his thoughts creating a perspective uniquely his own.

One can also say that the stream of conscience that created:

YOU DONT NEED A BODHI TREE

is more than just capricious.

We travel different paths, but eventually we all arrive at our destination, the only destination there is for us, a oneness with our Creator.

Enjoy!!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jan 1, 2000
• ISBN: 9781462820634

Tess Marcin

Tess Marcin makes her home on the West Coast. She keeps busy, not only with her writing, but manages to follow other endeavors as well. Watch for more titles to come.

Book preview

1

THERE IS A DOOR

Life behind the door . . . There is a place called Shangri-La, and no it is not in the Himalayas. It is the one within.

Most of our society is afraid of this place. It is afraid of what it might see, what it might learn, when it opens that inner door.

For a short time in the sixties, there was a big to-do about heading East. Going there to find a Guru, going to experience, going to change one’s life. But many of those who became involved simply did it because it was something new, something out of the main-stream, something the majority, at the time, knew nothing about. So the search for a Guru began. The chanting, the sounds of the mantra could be heard in the strangest places. But soon the novelty wore of, the hoped for change did not take place, and those who had dropped in, dropped out, the pattern for dropping out had begun.

However, a few persisted. They hung in there, they had noticed something . . . life looked different, it seemed to have more meaning, it seemed to be more peaceful. They found an added bonus, the door to their creative self seemed to be opening. They began to spread the word, but it was no longer the word of the sixties. They had moved into a new world and in this world they found the effort was not the one of the Guru, of the group, it was a singular one, a one on one.

As these individuals were now discovering, the benefits of going within were many. They enjoined their friends to try, the ripples spread and they are still spreading.

The door that had opened a mere slit, has continued to open, but ever so slowly. Behind the door of the inner self, a key has been discovered. The key to the knowledge that life is lived on two levels, the outer one, and the inner one. And it is the inner one that is the eternal one.

Yes, there are many doors, but the one that will bring the most rewards is the one within self. It is when this door begins to open that one begins to see the light.

So many ignore this inner door, and yet it truly is the door that will lead one to Aladdin’s cave. The riches that lie within are the riches one finds in the world of the inner self.

Aladdin used the words, Open Sesame. They worked for him, but our inner world demands no such words, it only asks we listen to the inner self, in silence. It is the silence that opens the door.

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2

THE SWINGING DOOR

As with any door, it can open out or it can open in. The choice is up to us and it depends on our destination.

To say we live in a topsy-turvy world, is to underestimate the obvious. We have created this world, this society. A society that is living on quicksand, and with each movement, is being sucked ever downward. And should one be looking for a keyword . . . downward would be it.

So many people have decided to absolve themselves of any responsibility for their actions that it isn’t any surprise the world is in a mess. It is this very lack of responsibility that has caused the many problems we face today. And yet these very same people will turn around and blame the ones who take responsibility for their own lives, their own actions. Irresponsible man creates the problems and looks to responsible man to solve them.

The fact is, that through their own greed, their own selfishness, they have made life miserable for themselves, as well as others, escapes them.

They simply do not see beyond the me.

Pleasure, escapism, hedonism, the generation of today has surpassed Sodom and Gomorra simply to satisfy the ego. In so doing they have not given meaning to life, they have denigrated it. The mode of the day? Let’s party! Let’s self-destruct!

No, the world has not always been filled with a do-good, be-good society, but the balance was there. Those who were bent on self-destruction were in the minority.

How did all this occur? Why did all this occur? When did the mind of man decide down was better then up? When did it decide he preferred being of an animal nature then of a human one?

We could ask the question forever, but we would soon find the answer just as puzzling. We could find that if life has taken a turn abruptly, stepping off the path into the quicksand, how should we go about assessing the blame? Could we say that the blame can be laid at the feet of those whose viewpoint, perspective, have defined man not as a superior created being, but as an accidental aberration? Sure man behaves like an animal, but he is not an animal. God created the flora and the fauna, and he created man. Is that not specific enough? Does not that define who we are?

Man, began, he flourished, he evolved, he became civilized, he became educated, he kept adding to this house of cards until it collapsed. Why? Was the house he had built too fragile to sustain anymore? Or was it an overload of the brain with something called education that led him astray? No, there isn’t anything wrong with education, however, many parts of it are simply derived from a viewpoint, a perspective of another individual. And like a bunch of sheep, man has a tendency to follow the herd, the pack, the group.

We have invented, or a better word could be created, sociologists, biologists, philosophers, psychiatrists, politicians, teachers of this, of that, who arrived at such titles through education. Now in order to give credence to the system, they must now impose their thought process on mankind. Their thinking has muddied the basic moral instincts of man. Confusion has galloped across the planet like the headless horseman.

No one is right, no one is wrong, no one is responsible, all must do their thing. The mind of the human race co-opted like Pavlov’s dog.

Can we call ourselves civilized when we allow ourselves to be subjugated to the whims of others and led around like a monkey on a leash . . . ?

Can we call ourselves civilized when what is material means more to us then our spirit . . . ?

Can we call ourselves civilized when we slaughter each other . . . ?

Can we call ourselves civilized when we kill someone for a pair of sneakers . . . ?

Can we call ourselves civilized when we kill simply because we do not like the way someone looks, or looks at us . . . ?

Can we call ourselves civilized when we kill an emerging soul, as a form of birth control . . . ? When did life become so unimportant . . . ?

Can we call ourselves civilized when we destroy the environment in the pursuit of greed . . . ?

Can we call ourselves civilized when we produce the technology that hastens the demise of man, whether by food, by drugs, by whatever, in the pursuit of money . . . ?

Can we call ourselves civilized when we demean the One who granted us this life . . . ?

Can we call ourselves civilized when belief in the Creator, who gave us the opportunity to be human, no longer is important . . . ?

Can we call ourselves anything more then misguided, mislead, irresponsible individuals, who haven’t a clue that we throw away daily, the greatest gift ever given . . . life?

Can we dare to call ourselves . . . civilized?

Can we even call ourselves . . . human?

Yes, there is a door, we do have a choice, so why is it that the door that opens outward, is so much more important then the one that opens inward?

And shouldn’t we stop calling ourselves civilized until we actually are?

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3

THE BALL OF STRING

Let us assume the ball of string represents our beliefs, whatever they may be. As anyone knows, who has ever collected string and wound it into a ball, it can and does consist of short, medium, and long strands. Each knotted to the one before and all growing along with the ball.

Finding string and winding it into a ball is the easy part. Under the assumption that each is a belief of some kind, would it be possible to trace that belief to its point of origin? Has such an undertaking ever been done? Pull out a string, a belief, and work back in time until its source has been found?

This certainly would be a difficult, daunting task, although a worthy one. Our world is filled with beliefs, we cannot begin to count them, and yet it is these beliefs that have resulted in some of our greatest misunderstandings. We tend to place so much faith in them, we forget that if we took a belief back to its beginning it could not be substantiated, it could not be proven as fact. It would be discovered that it was only a thought produced by someone, repeated over and over again until it became a belief. Valid or not, it was now a given.

Humanity, at its inception, conception, began without a list of beliefs. But man, who had been given a mind, soon managed to fill it with so many, he was soon hard put in distinguishing which were valid, and which were not. Man continues to this day on this self-imposed task. Belief . . . thought . . . universal will-o-the-wisps.

Possibly pulling each string and attempting to verify the label of belief it carries, will never take place. So what next? Explore the thought as it occurs before it is filed under a belief.

We cannot resist thought, since like the bubbles arising from a pot of water as it begins to boil, they just come. But we can resist tagging each with a belief the minute it breaks the surface.

The ball of string will continue to grow, the knots joining and conjoining each piece into beliefs, thoughts while within the ball may look solid, but once the ball begins to unravel they soon appear as what they are, mere bits and pieces without a solid base.

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4

STIR THE FIRE

The spark in the self lies hidden in many. Like the embers of a dying fire it seems to be beyond saving. But all it takes to set those embers ablaze again is a vigorous stir with the poker, a few bits of paper and some kindling, and once again it’s burning brightly.

The future awaits each and everyone of us, but the future is not the same for all. We create it by our individual choices and the choices on a daily basis are innumerable. We cannot overlook destiny in this mix. Destiny is our past living as today and effecting our future. And lest any believe the future ends when one steps onto the next plane, it would behoove them to think again. The circle of life keeps on turning, and we move in and out of time as we make our way around it.

The choices we make today, will not only affect us today, but they will effect our spirit as it steps in and out of time. The choices we make today are the destiny we face when we move back into time when the circle slows to pick us up again.

Stir the spark within and light the fire within, because through you, and you alone, will you define your present and your future. The thinking of today seems to be that the responsibility for one’s life, one’s self, lies with the other guy. Much as we all would like to be lilies of the field and toil not, we are responsible for ourselves. If we could take a peek into that future, the one we will be living the next time we step out of no-time and back into time, will we make the connection, that we created it, as we lived life today? Hardly . . . this is the mysterious part of who we are, it is the lesson that we come back to learn.

An analogy could be like taking a test, when we know the answer before hand we do not pay much attention to the question, and yet it is the question that defines the answer.

Today we make a decision to do something that severely impacts our life as well as the lives of others. If we knew what we would have to do to atone for it the next time around, what would our reaction be? "Oh, that wasn’t such a bad punishment . . .

I can live with it." But that is not how it works, the answer, the punishment, the atonement, will not be revealed, either now or in that future. Our next life may be a truly bad one and we won’t have a clue that it was the choice, the decision, the action that was made today that caused the reaction.

Stir that spark, let the fire blaze and by its light . . . reflect. You have chosen a path, is it the right path? It is never too late to change paths, it is never too late to tend the fire that enables us to see the direction. We may not know the answer, we don’t even know the question, but if we tend to our internal, eternal flame, our path will be lit.

The spirit, tending to spirit as it has done throughout its journey in time and out of time.

No one is responsible for its trip except the self doing the traveling.

We choose the fires . . .

We light the fires . . .

We stir the embers . . .

We make the choices, the decisions, that affect, and effect . . .

Our journey.

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5

THE JOURNEY

The minute we are born we start the journey of this life time. It is our own personal one and whether we realize it or not, or acknowledge it or not, it is the one we must traverse alone. No one can take the trip intended for us,