There’s really nothing else to say. Except knowing this, how can one regain paradise? How can one do more than just hear these words and think, perhaps it’s true? How can one realize that it is true?
There are many ways to approach this problem, and all of the world’s faith traditions and all the world’s various and multifarious spiritual practices have been designed to address this; to provide you with the opportunity, appropriate to your time, place and personality to realize this truth. The realization of this truth, however, through whatever path you may choose or try, takes a long time. Why is this the case?
Imagine that this beautiful room is filled to the top with applesauce, and you have been given a toothpick, with which to consume it. That is spiritual endeavor. The applesauce is the illusion that has been conjured up through generation after generation, thousands of generations, of human minds working on this problem, inventing a false world within which one operates. You inherit all that creativity when you come here. You inherit all the work minds have made for millennia, to generate false ideas about this place, and you add your own to it.
If you want to clear all that away, you have to work diligently, clearing it out. And we say this to you: Imagine that you have just a tiny toothpick to work upon all this applesauce, consuming it all day long. You will still see nothing but applesauce for a long, long time. But that does not mean you have not reduced it tremendously. Yeah.
You can have removed a great deal of illusion from your life, and still feel you are facing illusion. It does not mean you are not doing the right thing. It does not mean your practice is not effective. It does not mean you are not improving. In fact, you will start to realize all these things: That you are improving. That it is effective. That you are getting close to your goal, even if you still see nothing but applesauce everywhere you look.
And one day, you will scrape the bottom, and for a moment, for just a moment, you will see the bottom. And then the applesauce will cover back over. But once you’ve seen it, you cannot go back. Even if you stop trying to clear it out, you cannot eliminate the fact that you have witnessed the true reality for just a moment.
And everyone has an experience like this at least one time in life, where suddenly they realize, and then the delusions naturally come back. Often the individual feels despair at that time, thinking, “I had it, I had it, but then I’ve lost it again.” It’s not true. It’s always there, and it is natural for the powerful illusions created by all the generations of oneself and others to constantly try to bury the truth.
Do not become depressed or despairing, if you feel you have not regained your glimpse, or if you feel you have not yet had that perfect glimpse. Do not allow yourselves to waste any energy feeling regretful or feeling uncertain, because only continuous effort will result in your constant touching of that truth.
And there will come a time in this life, or after this life, there will come a time when you see only truth. No applesauce in sight. When that happens depends only upon your destiny, your plan for this life, and the effort you want to put into it. And it is entirely up to you. Absolute freedom is yours, dear ones.