all your eggs

To be free, first put all your eggs in one basket

Then turn the basket upside down

Finally throw away the basket

The process of liberation, of awakening, is rather curious. It's not really how we've been taught that things happen. Usually we expect that if we want to achieve a goal, we follow certain steps, and at the end of those steps we've achieved what we wanted. That's the theory, anyway, that we are taught in schools, by our parents, by society. Of course life is not really like that. If it were, every marriage would be a happy one. Every business would be successful. Nobody would ever lose a job. Life is not really like that at all. We wish it were, but it is not.

Mostly we want to be happy and perhaps we try different ways to be happy. Perhaps we try earning a lot of money working very hard. Perhaps we buy a nice shiny car or a big house. Perhaps we try different relationships, wanting to find happiness. And perhaps finding it for a while now and again. But lasting happiness is rather elusive.

And it's the same when we finally turn our attention to the spiritual path and we want to attain liberation. We want to be free. We want to awaken. And how do we go about this? Of course we try things. We try some discipline, perhaps meditation, perhaps yoga. There's an endless list of possible disciplines. And we might find some benefit in practising these things. But enlightenment, that final liberation, is not really achieved through these disciplines. But unless we try, unless we really put our effort into seeing what different approaches can do for us, unless we undertake that rather arduous work, we will never really have learned for ourself what those things can do for us, but also what their limit is. We might be told that meditation in the end will not bring you enlightenment. But that is somebody else's observation, not your own. Not that is, until you've tried it. And this is why I say to be free we have to put all our eggs in one basket.

What I mean by that is we need to really gather together all those possible things that might bring us freedom. just as we bring together all the possible things that might make us happy. Bring them all together. We need to stake everything. Because otherwise if we leave a few aside, a few possible methods, a few possible things that might make us happy or bring us freedom, then of course, having tried everything else, we'll need to move on to those other ones. Somehow we need to find a way of gathering together all our hopes, all our desires, all the things that we think might help us. We need to gather them all together and put them in one basket – all our eggs. And of course this goes against conventional wisdom. To put all one's eggs in one basket is risky. And that's the whole key to liberation. We need to risk everything and we need to risk it all at once. If we just take a small risk now and again, one thing at a time, then our mind will keep creating new possibilities: as fast as we cross one thing off the list, another will be added to the bottom. So we need to put everything in one basket.

It's a big gamble, and the crazy thing about this process is none of those eggs will really help us. We need to try them. We need to put some time and energy into seeing for ourself that ultimately they are all limited. And when we see this clearly enough, when everything is at stake, that is the moment to turn the basket upside down and see all our eggs fall to the floor. Everything is lost in that moment. Our hope is shattered with all those eggs, and we are left in a hopeless, rather despondent space.