the pond

Yesterday the pond was empty

Nothing has changed and yet today the pond is full

Things are changing. Life is change. Nothing remains fixed forever. That which was here yesterday has gone and that which will be here tomorrow has not yet come. In this moment, today, the moment between yesterday and tomorrow, there is something different – different from what was and different from what will be. This is the nature of things, things in the manifest world. There is no constancy. Things move and change. So it is no wonder if a pond which was empty one day is full the next. That is change. It is in the nature of things. Yet here it is said nothing has changed, and yet today the pond is full. There is a space, a place within us, a place within existence which is unchanging, where nothing has ever changed, and nothing ever will change. This is the absolute. It is our deepest yearning to find this absolute, this unchanging point. Yet we look in the wrong places.

We look in the manifest world and we try to fix things. We try to build a house that cannot be destroyed by any earthquake. We try to build relationships, jobs, nations in the same way. We try to make everything fixed. But it is a fruitless task. Not only is it impossible, for the very nature of life is change, but also it is misguided. We are looking in completely the wrong domain, the wrong dimension of life, for this unchanging absolute.

The absolute is within us. It is our essence. It is our true nature. It is the core of our being. When we have touched that dimension – that dimension of existence which is the changeless, the absolute, the unmanifest – when we have come home to that place within ourself, then we no longer look for stability in the manifest world. We no longer seek to make other things permanent. There is no need. Also it is seen so clearly how impossible that would be. So, our enlightenment – that moment, that time when we realise our true nature – when that great self-realisation comes into being, then the pond, which for so many years had seemed empty, all those years of thirst, wanting to drink from the source and finding only parched land, all those years will be as nothing. Without us having done anything, without anything having changed, everything will be transformed. The pond will be full, ever full. Our thirst will be continuously quenched. There will be no thirst at all. Life will have a different quality, a different feel. The pond will be seen to be full. Yet when asked what has changed, nobody can quite say. Nobody can quite point to what has changed, for nothing has changed. Yet the whole feel of life is different. The thirst has gone and the pond is full.