I wanted to share the following personal story with the forum.

A couple of weeks ago, I came to a realisation that was important for me.

If you want to imagine humanity, think of a beach full of pebbles. Each person is represented by a pebble. Each pebble is the same size and the same colour as every other pebble. No pebble is bigger or smaller than any other pebble. While you are focused on your own pebble, you can only see the pebbles that you are close to, that you are next to.

If you could zoom out and see the bigger picture, you would see the whole beach; built of millions of pebbles, the sunlight shining down, and the waves breaking and pulling back. It is a beautiful picture.

The most important thing is to never stop questioning.

There is comfort in knowing that one fits in with all the others. There is security in feeling that everyone is family, so to speak. But when considering further, one realizes that the world is not so nice a place. There is greed and hate and fear with every man--is any man free of these?--and the earth is a cesspool of wars, poverty and inhumanity.

One has to live in this world, but the trick is to be an individual. Until one has intelligence and love, he will not be an individual. He will be a pebble on the beach.

max

David C wrote:
the whole beach; built of millions of pebbles, the sunlight shining down, and the waves breaking and pulling back.

this much is an hykoo.
gb

We are watching, not waiting, not expecting anything to happen but watching without end. JK

David C wrote:
If you could zoom out and see the bigger picture, you would see the whole beach; built of millions of pebbles, the sunlight shining down, and the waves breaking and pulling back. It is a beautiful picture.

When you realize this, you are not merely the pebble, but something more...the space that contains all the pebbles-- whereas others live and die as individual pebbles always thinking they are different.

All the best in your quest.

Freedom from the known is Attention in the Unknown: Krishnamurti J