Even when raw, good quality rice has its own essence. When cooked, its essence is experienced as taste, aroma, looks, texture through touch. Its presence becomes hard to ignore. It starts to trigger the desire to eat. If there is a delay in getting to eat the rice, then mind is tested for patience, it gets into contemplation – why there is a delay.
There are two ways that the thoughts can drift to depending on the nature of the mind – one is destructive, I am going to give a good time to the one who is not letting me fulfill my desire; other is constructive that chooses to evolve – I am sure there is a reason that it is delayed, it has to be for my good, I must meditate on this thought to know what message is supposed to come to my awareness through this incident.
The former one, leads the mind to descend and fall while the latter, leads the mind on the path of evolution and ultimately ascend. The mind learns to get centered in the heart and gradually transcend the process of thinking. This is when the inner journey starts.
The example of rice may seem to be very small but if you imagine yourself stranded on an island with rice being the only food, then you will know that the idea of significance itself, is relative. Because there are too many distractions, focus is not on rice. When it is deprived of what it wants, the mind starts to look for alternatives externally. In the absence of distractions, or when nothing from the external world can seem to satisfy, the mind is forced to go inside.
This triggers spiritual journey as mind’s attention is diverted to itself and it stumbles on the source of power that lies within. The existing patterns break, the mental body shatters to give way to the higher mind – and this one is more powerful. No matter the challenges, it will lead to freedom either by burning the illusion of desire or by fulfilling it.
And now the mind is given the option – eat the rice and be satisfied or continue the journey to know the raw rice. It doesn’t think now, it watches as the information plays out – raw rice was made to go through certain processes so it transformed into cooked rice which looks different and gives a different experience by the alteration of its characteristics; cooked rice is real and needed, raw rice is also real and without it there is no cooked rice; the texture of raw rice can be known only when it is pure – and it is truly known by the still mind when there is no distraction.
What a simple act of nature to awaken the mind to higher wisdom! This is how cooking is also a healing art, it shifts presence into that which is knowledge itself, leading the mind into a meditative state.
Similarly when the contemplation is shifted to the nature of reality driven by the desire to know who I am and what is that outside of me, the essence (tattva) of spirit and nature is, eventually, revealed to the meditative mind. Without the presence of spirit as canvas, mind can not experience nature.
When it descends into the field of vibration, spirit is called soul and….