The Beauty of Life

"High in the mountains, there were hardly any birds; there were some crows, there were deer, and an occasional bear. The huge redwoods, the silent ones, were everywhere, dwarfing all other trees. It was a magnificent country and utterly peaceful, for no hunting was allowed. Every animal, tree, and flower was protected. Sitting under one of those massive redwoods, one was aware of the history of humanity and the beauty of the earth. A fat red squirrel passed by most elegantly, stopping a few feet away, watching and wondering what you were doing there. The earth was dry, though there was a stream nearby. Not a leaf stirred, and the beauty of silence was among the trees. Going slowly along the narrow path, round the bend was a bear with four cubs as large as big cats. They rushed off to crawl up trees, and the mother faced one without a movement, without a sound. About fifty feet separated us; she was enormous, brown, and prepared. One immediately turned one’s back on her and left. Each understood that there was no fear and no intention to hurt, but all the same, one was glad to be among the protecting trees, squirrels, and the scolding jays.
Freedom is to be a light to oneself; then it is not an abstraction, a thing conjured by thought. Actual freedom is freedom from dependency, attachment, from the craving for experience. Freedom from the very structure of thought is to be a light to oneself. In this light all action takes place, and thus it is never contradictory. Contradiction only exists when that law, light, is separate from action, when the actor is separate from action. The ideal, the principle, is the barren movement of thought and cannot coexist with this light; one denies the other. This light, this law, is separate from you; where the observer is, this light, this love, is not. The structure of the observer is put together by thought, which is never new, never free. There is no how, no system, no practice. There is only the seeing which is the doing. You have to see, not through the eyes of another. This light, this law, is neither yours nor that of another. There is only light. This is love."
Excerpt from The Beauty of Life

Jaap Sluijter
Executive Director