Authenticity

It is reported about one great mystic, Milarepa:
When he went to his master in Tibet he was so humble, so pure, so authentic, that other disciples became jealous of him. It was certain that he would be the successor. And of course there was politics, so they tried to kill him.

One day they said to him, “If you really believe in the master, can you jump from the hill? If you really believe, if the trust is there, then nothing, no harm, is going to happen.” And Milarepa jumped without even hesitating for a single moment. They rushed down… because it was almost a three-thousand-foot deep valley. They went down to find his scattered bones–but he was sitting there in a lotus posture, very happy, tremendously happy. He opened his eyes and said, “You are right, trust protects.”

They thought it must be some coincidence, so when a house was on fire one day they told him, “If you love your master and you trust, you can go in.” He rushed in to save the woman and the child who were left inside. He rushed in, and the fire was so great that the other disciples were hoping that he would die–but when he came back out with the woman and child, he was not burned at all. And he became more and more radiant, because the trust…

One day they were going somewhere, they were to cross a river, and they told him, “You need not go in the boat. You have such great trust, you can walk on the river”–and he walked.

That was the first time the master saw him. He was not aware that Milarepa had been told to jump into the valley and told to go into the burning house. But that time he was there on the bank and he saw Milarepa walking on the water and he said, “What are you doing? It is impossible!”

And Milarepa said, “Not impossible at all! I am doing it by your power, sir.”

Now the Master thought, “If my name and my power can do this to this ignorant, stupid man… I have never tried it myself,”…so he tried. He drowned. Nothing has been heard about him after that.

[i]The real thing is not a path. The real thing is the authenticity of the seeker. Let me emphasize this.

You can travel on any path. If you are sincere and authentic, you will reach the goal. Some paths may be hard, some may be easier, some may have greenery on both sides, some may be moving through deserts, some may have beautiful scenery around them, some may not have any scenery around them, that’s another thing; but if you are sincere and honest and authentic and true, then each path leads to the goal.

So it simply can be reduced to one thing: that authenticity is the path. No matter what path you follow, if you are authentic, every path leads to the goal. And the opposite is also true: no matter what path you follow, if you are not authentic you will not reach anywhere. Your authenticity brings you back home, nothing else. All paths are secondary. The basic thing is to be authentic, to be true.[/i]

• Zen

I like this story. I have found a similar effect in my own life, well in a more practical and perhaps obvious sense. I find that when I believe in myself, no matter the difficulty of the task, everything works out fine. When I have doubt in my heart, or I enter into a situation with weakness (usually only a perceived weakness on my own part), it never works out. Sometimes it is a matter of waiting until I am ready, but not just idly waiting- I have to psyche myself up.

I’m not going to jump off a cliff any time soon though… what about those times when you have doubt? If you’re not being “authentic”, how can you find that belief?

Hi Vortical,

You ask how does one gain authenticity? How does one release self-doubt?

Both things happen at the same time. When we let go of defending our ego, when we understand and accept that I, or me, is an illusion, that there is no ‘I’ to protect, then we see ourselves as part of, not an appendage to. At that moment we begin to act out of our emotion and mind as one - together. What we say and do rises spontaneously out of our inner nature and in that lies our authenticity, our sincerity. All of this is, of course, just words. Our genuiness lies beyond mere words. It is that awareness within that guides us.

JT

Hey Vortical,

I would say that it has a lot to do with your conscience. It seems to me that our conscience is the voice of our heart where sincerity arises. All we have to do is pay attention and follow the instructions. As a good friend of mine would say; “When in doubt, leave it out”.

A

Hi everybody,

when I am so confident, I fall on my face.

But it has obviously to do with my not being “so humble, so pure, so authentic” like Milarepa. It is the balance that is required, faith and humility, commitment und purity, vision and authenticity. In my experience, it is precisely this balance that others try to disturb (the jealous). I think that those who preserve the balance achieve more - even if it is not given recognition in this world of superciality.

Shalom
Bob

Hiya,

The thing is that the ‘recognition’ cannot be seen immediately. It is not like the instant gratification of our consumer society - its a reward that takes time to come to fruition. Like Jesus said when he told us not to store up our treasures on earth but to store them in Heaven. That is the hard part and that is the test of our strength in our knowing what we should do that is right and good for our spirit… And the recognition comes, we observe it through the gifts we receive in our lives…everything that we have is given to us. All we have to do is learn how to see. Everything that we need is right before us. We have to expand ourselves to ‘see’.

A