illusion

Richard bach with the book ‘Jonathan seagull’ reached the cult status. Then he came up with his second title “Illusion”. This too became a best seller. What I liked most was the parable with which the book begins.

“Once there lived a village of creatures along the bottom of a great crystal river. “The current of the river swept silently over them all - young and old, rich and poor, good and evil, the current going its own way, knowing only its own crystal self.  

“Each creature in its own manner clung tightly to the twigs and rocks of the river bottom, for clinging were their way of life, and resisting the current what each had learned from birth.  

“But one creature said at last, ‘I am tired of clinging. Though I cannot see it with my eyes, I trust that the current knows where it is going. I shall let go, and let it take me where it will. Clinging, I shall die of boredom.’  

“The other creatures laughed and said, ‘Fool! Let go, and that current you worship will throw you tumbled and smashed across the rocks, and you will die quicker than boredom!’

“But the one heeded them not, and taking a breath did let go, and at once was tumbled and smashed by the current across the rocks.  “Yet in time, as the creature refused to cling again, the current lifted him free from the bottom, and he was bruised and hurt no more.  

“And the creatures downstream, to whom he was a stranger, cried, ‘See a miracle! A creature likes ourselves, yet he flies! See the Messiah, come to save us all!’  

“And the one carried in the current said, ‘I am no more Messiah than you. The river delights to lift us free, if only we dare let go. Our true work is this voyage, this adventure.’

“But they cried the more, ‘Saviour!’ all the while clinging to the rocks, and when they looked again he was gone, and they were left alone making legends of a Saviour.”

It is not that we do not know what we are or what we want. Problem is that we know it too well. What we lack is the courage to believe in it and make it real. Just like those creatures we too wait for some leader to save us and to establish corrupt free world, thus we live in our self-created illusion and become shadow of our own shadow.