THE EMPTY BOAT









Pic.: Chetna Shetty
To say from the cross, on which your tormentors have nailed you, “Father, please forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing,” you need to be a Jesus Christ!
The fact is, you and I are not Jesus Christs... So, we find it impossible to imagine – leave alone say – something like that... My tormentor, who has abused me, stripped me, tortured me and, finally, hanged me naked on the cross... he is innocent, ignorant? He doesn't know what he is doing?
Sorry Jesus. I am not ‘the Son of God’ like you... I can’t show my other cheek... I can’t bring me to think those who crucify me like this are innocent or ignorant...
But, Jesus, deep inside me, I do know this: the real salvation, the real freedom lies only in saying that prayer from my cross: “Father, please forgive them; for, they do not know what they are doing.”
People can be mean; they can hurt me badly... They can torture me relentlessly, both physically and mentally... And, I need to protect myself from abuse of any kind. I need to stand for my right and fight for my dignity and honor.. That’s the greatest service I can do to myself... and, that’s, also, the most honorable way of managing my own well-being...
Yes, I cannot bring myself, always, to think that those who hurt me and torment me are not aware of what they are doing... But, in the ultimate sense – in the deeper, spiritual sense – they are unaware, unconscious. Else, they would, certainly, not do what they are doing to me...
So, when I bring myself to think so, is it not my freedom, my salvation – from the bondage of self-pity and victimhood?
In the Tao teachings, there is an amazing lesson called ‘The Empty Boat’. It helps us imagine the situation, where an empty boat comes from nowhere and rams into our boat, right in the middle of a river...
Yes, there is no one in that boat... It is empty...
Would we react at that empty boat, angrily?
What if someone was rowing it... Would we say, “Poor soul, he is innocent, he is ignorant... He did not know what he has just done?"
Difficult proposition sir, I know. But, in the middle of the river, the other option is this:  Abuse him, pull him out of his boat and throw him into the river...
Well, in the middle of the deep river, I say!
To imagine and believe that other people – including all my tormentors – operate from their respective levels of awareness, that they all have their respective unhealed wounds, unresolved conflicts... and, they are unaware of this... Yes, to imagine and believe this, one needn't be a Jesus Christ, the Son of God...
If freedom is important to us, Jesus’ last prayer from the cross ‘will’ come to our lips, on its own...
Everybody who rams into my boat, rows an empty boat, after all... Doesn't he?

GERALD D’CUNHA

Comments

Anonymous said…
Very meaningful blog and very true. Kishore
May 15, 2014 at 2:13 PM
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