Seeing the sights - or not

This punchy, little story comes from Walking on Water by De Mello.


Imagine you're travelling in a group through a country you've never visited before. You're on a train and all the curtains are drawn. They are all occupied in discussions - about who gets which seat, about who is the most important traveller, who is the best looking, who is most appreciated, most talented - and so on, ad infinitum. They're also discussing the fantastic places they have been before, scoring points off one another as they go and a big topic of conversation is what they are going to see in this country - the one they're passing through. And the result is they see nothing because this is how they go on for the whole of their journey.


If you can see how this applies to how you live your life today, you might understand what it means to be an awakened spirit.


As a postscript, I was tempted to change the story and make them tourists who are taking pictures all the time rather than having the authentic experience of seeing things while they are in front of them. It happened recently on a ferry in Marlborough Sound, which offers the most amazing scenery I have seen so far. And it seemed that half the people had their backs to the scenery while their picture was taken and the other half were reviewing the pictures on their camera while the most amazing scenery slipped past. And that analogy wouldn't have worked because it doesn't allow for the conversations to take place.