Learning Big Words
This time we're going to
try to understand a couple of very big words. But you
like to add words to your vocabulary, don't you? Grown-ups
seem to love them; so why shouldn't you? Those two
words are: transcendent and immanent. "My
goodness," you say, "what do I know about
things like that?" Well, let's see what you know. A
story may help.
Twelve glass sheets, like window panes, formed a company
and went to the Registrar of Societies with a constitution
they had drawn up and all the papers necessary to become
an accredited company. They registered the company
name as "Sunlight Obstruction Company Unlimited."
After forming the company they wrote an open letter
to the sun shining in the sky.
"Dear Mr. Sun, (it said)
We have formed a very serious company of directors
here. We mean business. We will not allow you to pass
through here from now on."
And the sun shone! Right through them. The twelve glass
directors stood in a body and the sun passed through
them with a smile. That's what happens in such a case.
The sun was immanent in all those glass sheets
and passed through them as before. It looked as if
they made no difference. And, after trying in vain to obstruct
the sunshine, they felt so down-hearted they all decided to
commit suicide. They knocked against each other till all
got broken into bits. In fact, they were swept aside
and dumped into a dustbin. So as a directorate they
ceased to exist. And the sun shone, transcendent
all the time --which means, nothing could affect it;
it could not be "contained", "cut off",
"obstructed" and so on. When the twelve glass
sheets were there, he was completely immanent in the
twelve. When they all disappeared we call him transcendent.
That is an example of what is totally immanent being
transcendent at the same time. What does this mean
for our lives?
It means that He who is inside us can penetrate the
walls of separation made by bodies, minds, differences
in clothing, skin color, past histories, present behavior,
future hopes and plans. Like the sun going through
pieces of glass, He can pass through all these with a
smile and be immanent inside them. Without criticizing them,
finding fault with them, laughingly He goes through them,
himself unaffected, without affecting them either.
When the sunshine passes through the glass sheets it
doesn't change them: they remain just as they are,
twelve sheets stuck together. Also, when they are all
removed it makes no difference. Whether this world comes before
us, stays there or goes away, it makes no difference. The
outlook is the same.
We can tell the world, "Look here, world of variety, come if you want to; stay and have a cup of tea! Or if you can't stay, go on, go to your business. Come if you want, stay if you can and go if you must. Welcome all the variety without trying to make any change in it. The sunshine which is immanent and transcendent did not try to make any changes at all in the piece of glass.
"Glass," it says, "you look quite beautiful as you are. With all your intention to stop me --thanks. Stay there. It makes no difference to me." This is the utterly transcendent attitude of a person who is also immanent at the same time. We have to cultivate an attitude like that.
Who owns this body? Do you? You
may say, "I breathe." Actually the lungs
breathe, don't they? The diaphragm goes up and down,
making you breathe in and out. Who moves that diaphragm?
Right after a baby is born, the diaphragm begins to move
up and down. You can't say the baby does that; that baby's
consciousness doesn't develop so soon. It takes about
a year for it to understand, "I, I, I." In
the beginning who does that? When the child is sleeping
or the adult is sleeping, who is it that digests the
food? Nature digests it. God does it. God's presence inside
makes the food digested. All activities take place this way.
How is it then, that when we are waking we think that we
are conducting the body's activities?
When our ego recognizes that somebody else is doing
that, then when it drops even the waking activities.
It says, "Lord, you are sitting there inside,
and doing all this." If your legs walk, it is
God's legs that walk. If your hands catch something it is
God's hands that catch something. Like that, you change the
label and put all of it in the correct account. This is
called giving up mentally by means of discrimination.
You learned three big words today. See if you can remember
them. Surprise your family and friends by using each
one the right way.
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