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any times people think that in order to be spiritual they have to deny themselves of certain things that they are wanting in life.  Many times we find ourselves trying to run away from the world and avoid the things that we secretly desire.  When I met my teacher, Mr. Ambrister, I was only 21 years old.  One of the things he stressed was not to deny myself the things I was thinking about, and not to deny myself of my desires.  That set pretty well with me because I had many desires.  He explained, how we could not rush our way into spirituality.  It’s a long, long road to home, and it won’t help to rush our way there, by trying to hold back so to speak.  He also said even if you need a million dollars, go out and get it.  Just make sure you keep up your meditations.  I understood this because I knew as long as I kept up my meditations I would still be growing and my desires would be changing on a count of my focus.  I had already begun to have that experience.  So I knew that was true.  He would also tell me this story to keep this in mind at times when I might be starting to deny myself of certain desires.

Story about the monk

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here were two monks out begging for food for the monastery.  One day one of the young monks said to the other monk, “Why are we out here begging for food for these old guys?  If I’m going to beg for anything, I’m going to beg for myself.”  The other monk said, “No, we have to do this.”  The first said, “No, no!  I’m going to go on my own.”  The young monk left the monastery.  When he left the monastery and went out on his own, the first person he met was a prostitute.  She was beautiful and he liked what he saw.  When he met her, he told her “Teach me the ways of the world.”  She looked at him with his shabby clothes and his long beard, and replied, “All my guys wear English cut suits.  Get away from here.  Go on.”  He respectfully nodded his head and went on about his business.  Later when he came back, he was so sharp she didn’t even recognize him.  He asked her again, “Teach me the ways of the world?”  This time she agreed.  Over the next several weeks she taught him how to gamble, how to play pool, all the ways of the world; all the exciting things he had been thinking about.  Throughout that process they ended up falling in love.  They got married.  He eventually got his fill of the world.  He had gotten his chance to get out and do all the things he had been thinking about.  At this point he goes back to the monastery.  When he goes back, he’s ready for that life, because he had experienced all the things of the world.  He experienced all those things that were in his head, haunting him.  He actually had to get away intially.

That’s how it is with us.  If we have any desires that we are secretly harboring, and we’re not living then out, the feeling will intensify. We don’t have to be wild about it, but we must fulfill our needs.  If we don’t, they will come out in a big unnatural way.  It will be far worse than if we would have gone ahead and lived out our desires.  In addition to this, when you sit down to meditate, if you have these desires on your mind, that’s what’s going to appear in your mind in meditation.  Instead of meditating on what you should be meditating on, you’ll be meditating on Kal, meditating on the things of the world.  Your mind will be focusing on those things when it should be centered on the spirit within.  It still won’t do you any good.

So of course the moral of the story is, you cannot deny yourself the things of the world.  We absolutely cannot get spiritual by doing that.  What we should do is go ahead, get the experience – both the bad and good from it, learn the lesson that goes along with it and continue to meditation often.  If we continue to meditations deeply, we’re less attached as we live out our desires.  We’re able to catch the lessons quicker. 

from Wise Words by Craig Kimbrough

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