(no subject)
Rabindranath often used to go on his small houseboat and live for months on the beautiful river, surrounded by thick forest, in absolute silence and aloneness.
One full-moon night, it happened that he was reading a very significant contribution to the philosophy of aesthetics, by Croce…In the middle of night, tired from Croce’s very complicated arguments, he closed the book and blew out the candle. He was going to his bed to sleep, but a miracle happened.
As the small flame of the candle disappeared, from every window and door of the small houseboat the moon came dancing in. The moon filled the house with its splendor. Rabindranath remained silent for a moment. It was such a sacred experience. He went out of the house, and the moon was immensely beautiful in that silent night amongst those trees, with a river flowing so slowly that there was no noise. He wrote in his diary the next morning, “The beauty was all around me, but a small candle had been preventing it. Because of the light of the candle, the light of the moon could not enter.”
This is exactly the meaning of nirvana. Your small flame of the ego, your small flame of the mind and is consciousness, is preventing the whole universe from rushing into you; hence the word nirvana- blow out the candle and leet the whole universe penetrate you from every nook and corner. You will not be a loser. You will find, for the first time, your inexhaustible treasure of beauty, of goodness, of truth- of all that is valuable.
One full-moon night, it happened that he was reading a very significant contribution to the philosophy of aesthetics, by Croce…In the middle of night, tired from Croce’s very complicated arguments, he closed the book and blew out the candle. He was going to his bed to sleep, but a miracle happened.
As the small flame of the candle disappeared, from every window and door of the small houseboat the moon came dancing in. The moon filled the house with its splendor. Rabindranath remained silent for a moment. It was such a sacred experience. He went out of the house, and the moon was immensely beautiful in that silent night amongst those trees, with a river flowing so slowly that there was no noise. He wrote in his diary the next morning, “The beauty was all around me, but a small candle had been preventing it. Because of the light of the candle, the light of the moon could not enter.”
This is exactly the meaning of nirvana. Your small flame of the ego, your small flame of the mind and is consciousness, is preventing the whole universe from rushing into you; hence the word nirvana- blow out the candle and leet the whole universe penetrate you from every nook and corner. You will not be a loser. You will find, for the first time, your inexhaustible treasure of beauty, of goodness, of truth- of all that is valuable.