Beschrijving

Part of the Preface:
Every man or woman thinks and feels that he or she deserves the best. Therefore, every man or woman in his or her own way either begs, requests, prays or pleads to some divine force to grant him what he thinks he lacks, or his family lacks. Man is convinced that he should not lack in anything. If he does not want to lack in anything, why does he not bring everything that he wants with him when he comes into this world? Because man believes he can possess he desires, and when his desires are not fulfilled he feels the lack of both, the mental and the physical possessions. The power in the chapter ‘Lacking’ brings in the realisation of the present – the thoughtless and timeless ‘now’ in which there is no shadow of desire to acquire or possess. An understanding that the mind cannot but experience lacking is a wonderful gift, even though there is no one present to lack. How illusory!

Man spends his life like a dog chasing its tail – round and round in circles – not realising that what he chases can never quite be reached! An absurd way to live, or rather, not to live; so too did the mythological character Tantalus live his life, punished by the gods, by continuously being offered water or grapes, and whenever he reached out to them to quench his thirst or hunger, they moved out of his reach! Happy is the man who, having understood the wisdom in the chapter entitled ‘Lacking’, joins life as it unfolds mysteriously, without lacking anything.

‘Choose but choose rightly’ are wise words to the mind, just as ‘look before you leap’ are. Man chooses because he feels the lack of many a thing. Therefore, he is inundated with right choices to make and, though he chooses meticulously, guided and aided by logic, religion and spirituality, his experiences suggest that he has not ‘looked before he has leapt’. The mind is a huge volume that contains and offers to man many choices, which are gospel to him to help him ‘look before he leaps’. The understanding that arises from a study of just one chapter of that volume, ‘Choosing’, which demonstrates the deceptiveness of mind and the power of the ego, albeit illusory, in influencing such a huge part of man’s life, is truly a gift from God. The illusion of choice is so beautiful – but more beautiful by far is the wisdom that reveals the illusion and offers the final choice of choicelessness, without its being a choice!