When the Student is Ready
the Master Not Only Appears,
but Stays

By Kevin Nixon

To most, life is a challenge, sometimes manageable and sometimes overwhelming. Is this how life is meant to be or has someone or a group of someone thrown a monkey wrench into the works? Maybe it's a little of both.

I have lived a few years in mother earth's bosom and I have come to a realization that yes life can indeed be challenging. But I have also realized that many of the challenges are of our own making.

Much of the early years of our lives are spent in a dream-like state. All too often what we perceive as our personal reality is only the remnants or shadows of another's dream; yes, even the dreams that we dream are not our own.

Almost everyone everywhere is being touched by the projection of some else's dream state. We absorb these dreams and fool ourselves into thinking that not only are they real but that they are our creations and that we are the dream weaver and not the one being woven. As I see it, we are all in some way puppeteers, energetically pulling at the mind strings of our fellow beings. We project and the other accepts the projection and embraces it as their reality.

Instead of seizing hold of that which is truth, we prefer to wallow in that which is only a half-truth or that which is an untruth or that which is an outright lie. And remember, all that is not your personal experience is at the very least a half-truth.

You can intellectualize about being rich or being enlightened or knowing this or knowing that but until you have experienced these things you cannot really give any signs to the seeker as to how to obtain them.

Nevertheless, all is not lost; for these things are here, and you are here. And, because you and they are both here, they are available to you also. Inside of you there is a rich man or woman. Inside of you there is an enlightened being. Inside of you there is one who knows much about this and that.

The outer you, the you that is obstinate, unyielding and hard, this part of you is the unready student, the one who knows that listening is of greater benefit than continuous talking, the one who feels his or her own greatness but nevertheless continues to get in his or her own way.

In your sleep state you have seen the master and you have shed tears in your sleep because you knew that once you awoke you would allow the master to fade away. The saddest part of it is that you know that you, the student and the master are one. You know that the master is simply that part of your being that has not yet awakened.

Yes, it is true that much of our early years are spent in a state of dreaming and dreaming someone else's dream. Every so often we awaken and we remain awake for a few seconds, a few minutes or hours and sometimes for a few weeks or months. But we have been dreaming for so long that eventually we fall back into a state of active slumber.

Still, we can never fall all the way back. Those moments of wakefulness have planted a seed in you and inwardly you yearn to return to that wakeful state. And you are not alone; for that moment of wakefulness desires itself to blossom into full blown consciousness. It pokes at you. It beckons you to try again, knowing that it is but a few pokes away from transforming you into a student that is ready, really ready for the master to not only appear but to stay. •

© 2011 Kevin Nixon. All rights reserved.

Kevin Nixon is an author, speaker, and healer, specializing in the ancient healing modality know as Reiki. Kevin currently conducts creativity workshops and healing sessions in the Metro Atlanta area. More »

10/6/11