subject: The End of All Seeking [print this page] Continuing Insight into Conscious Living from the Story ofThe Little Prince
When the airman who has slept on the desert sand all night awakens in the morning, he hears a strange little voice that asks him to draw him a sheep.
The pilot is in the worst predicament of his entire life. He has crash-landed in the Sahara, a thousand miles from any inhabited area, with only a meager supply of water. It feels like his life could be over.
The voice is that of The Little Prince, who has come from the skies. He represents an aspect ofourselves.
What amazes the pilot is that the little fellow "seemed neither to be straying uncertainly among the sands, nor to be fainting from fatigue or hunger or thirst or fear. Nothing about him gave any suggestion of a child lost in the middle of the desert, a thousand miles from any human habitation."
This is our true condition. This is what we are really like. Even in the most horrendous situations, there is within us a very different person from the panicked person we are acting like as a result of what's happening to us.
If you don't have a copy of this marvelous little book that was authored way back in 1944, with two different English translations and translations into many languages, I really recommend you pick one up. The book can be found everywhere. Thensit withsome of these statements. Justbe with them for a time.
Picture what Antoine de Saint-Exupery is portraying for us in this image of the airman feeling incredibly anxious as a result of crashing his aircraft in the Sahara, contrasted with the amazing calmness and composure of The Little Prince.
All the time I come across and hear from people who want to go on a journey into consciousness. But how do they want to journey? Anxiously.
People want to take their old boa constrictor mentality on a journey powered by boa constrictor thinking and hope to arrivewhere? In a state of presence?
Right at the outset of this little book, the author shows us that it doesn't work this way. We can't wish our way, think our way, meditate our way, or work our way into consciousness and a state of presence.
What we are seeking is already found. It's alreadywithin us. There is no journey to go on other than the journey of enjoying life and experiencing the ongoing expansion of our true being as life opens up for us more and more opportunities to know our limitless depths and infinite potential.
What we have to do iswake up, that's all. But it's so simple it usually takes a crash in the desert to bring this about.
What does The Little Prince ask for? A drawing of a boa constrictor?
