Inner Strength - Access to Insight

of energy out into the air, the same way that the beams of car headlights light upa road. The energy from our eyes, though, is refined. No matter where we look,we don’t see the energy flowing past because the current is subtle. It’s becausethe current is subtle, though, that it can flow far. If the current were blatant, itwould go only a short distance. This is why, when people develop solidconcentration, they’re able to see many subtle worlds. In other words, the natureof eye-energy has no limit, but we simply get no use out of it. Why? Because ourminds aren’t still. If our minds aren’t still, we’re like a person preoccupied, allwrapped up in his work. When the mind is wrapped up in confusion this way,then even though the eyes have potential energy, we can’t get any use out of itbecause it’s very subtle. The energy can go very far, but the problem is that themind isn’t quiet. If the mind were really quiet, we could immediately see veryfar. That’s clairvoyance.This is something ordinary and natural that exists in every human being. Ifthe mind is weak, then outside currents cut off the energy coming from oureyes. If the mind is strong and resilient, the currents of the world can’t cut thatenergy off. Such people can see far regardless of whether their eyes are open orclosed. This is a quality that exists in the human body—something of very highquality by its nature, but we can’t get any use out of it because our minds aredistracted and restless.When our minds are distracted and restless, we’re like people who are deaddrunk: Even though drunk people may have tools in their possession, they can’tput them to any use other than as weapons to kill one another. Only if they’regood and sober will they be able to use those tools to amass wealth and providefor their physical wellbeing. But if they’re mentally unbalanced, you give them aknife and they’ll use it to slice somebody’s head open. As a result, they end up inprison. Even if they don’t end up in prison, they’ll have to get caged or locked upat home.The same is true with the human beings born in this world: Even thoughthey’re endowed with good things by nature, their minds aren’t at normalcy.And so the good things within them end up causing various kinds of harm.Here we’ve been talking about physical nature. When we talk about subtlematters, like merit or the mind, they’re much more refined than the body. Forthis reason, helping people by way of the mind is something much moreprofound. When a person trains his own mind, and trains it well, to the pointwhere he experiences happiness and peace, and then hears that other people aresuffering and that there’s a way he can be of help, he uses the strength of themind. He cultivates the mind until it’s firmly established and then can send thatclean current to be of immediate help.The hearts of ordinary people, though, are like salt water in the ocean. If youuse it to bathe, you’re not really comfortable—although it can help you get by ina pinch. If you try to drink it, it doesn’t nourish the body. You use it only if youreally don’t have anything else at all.In the same way, the hearts of human beings in this world are adrift in theocean: the flood of sensuality, the flood of becoming, the flood of views, theflood of ignorance. These four oceans are deep: deeper than the water in the sea.59