Today's lesson was all about maturity. We as a species have failed to continue maturing. A few people here and there may have figured it out and it seems we've received ancient wisdom to guide us toward it, but we've come to neglect or forget what maturity is, what it means, and why we should do it.
Inside our minds is like Lord of the Flies on a ship. No one's at the helm for none of the kids know where to go. They jump around the ship fighting each other and making noise. They take turns jumping on the wheel only to be thrown off by another kid shortly thereafter. The wise kids don't bother even taking the helm cuz they don't know where they're going either and it makes no sense to try to steer a ship when others will fight you for the privilege.
Maturity has so many aspects and it seems so hard without clear directives and clear understandings as to how it benefits us. We have to tell our children that we don't hit each other, we don't call names, we try to work in harmony as a family. Then once we're an adult, most of us stop hitting but forget the rest. Why try to work in harmony when no one else is? They started it. They're they bad guy. Such children... We scream, we fight, we war. We don't know how to behave. And anyone shouting out that we ought to behave is generally killed. It's a rough world.
Still, perhaps we've been learning it fairly slowly as a species. I'm can't say we're regressing while the whole world continues to improve, but we're definitely always on the edge teetering toward destruction over growth with each new development and advancement giving us reason to take our eyes off the prize of maturity.
To the immature, maturity looks weak. It looks passive. It looks like permission for monsters to run amok. And so, we trade in maturity for loud voices and warriors. People who will get things done and not just sit around singing kumbaya while the world burns. Unfortunately, this is just so short-sighted. The real power comes with the maturity. The maturity is alignment with the River. And alignment with the River is the path that heals the world either through scientific principals or even via stream magic. But we'll never know if we don't work toward it--something few people care to do.
I found myself wanting to steer the ship. I want to be strong enough to fend the fools off the help and to keep it steering in the right direction. But it takes knowledge, discipline, strength, and purpose. And who is going to teach me all those things? Feeling compassion for this would-be captain, I raised my hand to say, "I will. I will train him" while forgetting the him was me. And that's just it, we must take ownership of our own maturing. No one else is going to do it. Just us. And we will do so by following the voice of the River.
I was presented with a choice of maturity. I was put in charge of my own timeline. When do I think I should mature? When am I ready for it? I am still much like a child, so I want to make the childish decision. But that's the decision that keeps me the child. Am I not strong enough to mature? Am I going to admit I am beneath it? To admit I am incapable, or never going to be ready is to say I never want the greater things that maturity brings. I don't want greater knowledge and power. I don't want a life of greater peace and satisfaction. But don't I? And is it really out of my reach? So when do I want to grow? When will I be ready? When will I say this is the time, I am ready to grow? When indeed...
Aided meditation is for the babies. The mature reach the River and hear it of their own accord. The wise learn to breathe in the material world slowly and exhale emotions of virtue into the world around them. And in so practicing and meditating, they learn to hear, learn to see, and learn to guide the River in and around their presence with full faculty of mind.
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