In the life of self-inquiry we are supposed to look at ourselves and try and figure out who it is that we really are. We have all these assumptions about who we are, most of which we picked up from other peoples’ assumptions of who they are, which we apply to ourselves. But, in truth, we need to look at ourselves, and we have to get a larger perspective on existence and on the world. And if you expand your perspective, if you look at what’s happened to you over the past years, and how things occurred, you’ll probably notice that you had something to do with the way things turned out for you.
There is a direct relationship between your thought process and your actions, and the consequences of those thoughts and actions. That relationship between your thought process and your intention, and the way things turn out for you, is called karma. Karma is the result of that which is being pent-up inside of you and your inclinations.
There is a circular nature to this existence, but first we need to understand that the big prizes in this world, peace and contentment, don’t necessarily have anything to do with wealth or fame, or any of the things that people think will bring them peace and contentment. Somehow people think power will bring them peace and contentment, fame will bring them peace and contentment, money will bring them peace and contentment; one has nothing to do with the other. A very wealthy man might be in absolute desperate straits all the time while somebody who’s just getting by could be a joyous, happy person.
There’s the story of the man who worked as a woodcutter, and every day he made a couple of rupees, and at the end of the day he would go home and there was somebody selling fruit near where his little shack was, and he would take his two rupees and buy as much fruit as he could buy with them, and split it with his friends. And they would all sit around eating and telling jokes and being happy. Meanwhile there was a miser on a hill who would watch this and he couldn’t spend two rupees even though he had hundreds of thousands of them, maybe millions, but he couldn’t bear to part with one. And the story goes on that he met somebody, the man sitting on the hill watching, who was a wise man, and he said, “Why can’t I be like him?”
And he said, “I’ll show you why.” And he said, “Give me ninety-nine rupees and put them in a bag.”
And the rich man did, and the man he was with took the bag and threw it into the man’s shack, who was the woodcutter, while he was away. And when the woodcutter came home he saw this bag, and he opened it up and he saw rupees, and he started to count them, “…and ninety-eight, ninety-nine,” and that was it. He said, “God, you gave me ninety-nine rupees, why didn’t you give me one hundred?” And so the next day when he got paid the money went into the bag.
And he looked at the rich man and he said, “Your money is just going into the bag, you haven’t learned how to be like he was, and he’s now learning how to be like you are.”
Well again, wealth doesn’t make you necessarily peaceful or content. Wealth doesn’t necessarily take you to a place where you are satisfied. What does take you to a place where you are satisfied? What takes you out of the circle of desire and fulfillment of desire?
