Retreat The Three Original Fears Sutra
RETREAT
THE THREE ORIGINAL FEARS SUTRA
as spoken by the one Mother Nova of the Northern Temple of the Starlit Order at the ordination of the Vessels
Stop me if you know this one. [Mother Nova laughs.]
First, there was only the Infinite Light, and it was an ocean of pure awareness.
Yet, there was little for it to be aware of, for only it existed.
It stretched from one end of the cosmos to the other for as long as eternity itself.
And it flowed from one end of the cosmos to the other, for there was no obstacle in its path and no riverbed to steer it.
And the longer the Infinite Light flowed, the longer the Infinite Light looked upon itself as itself, the more afraid it became.
For if there was only it and nothing else, it was everything.
And the Infinite Light grew frightened that if it stopped existing, then everything would stop existing.
That became the First Original Fear, the fear of being.
But the Infinite Light is everything, and so it cannot stop being. And we, as the mere Vessels of the Infinite Light, are it too, so we cannot stop being either. For the Infinite Light is the very thing that started everything, and hence it cannot end.
As time passed, the Infinite Light grew lonely, for only it existed.
After billions of years, flowing from one end of the cosmos to the other, it grew tired of only having awareness of itself.
It created galaxies and stars, and watched as they moved along one another and watched as they acted upon one another.
But even that grew too boring for the Infinite Light, and so it created more and animated more.
And it created the sand foxes, and the bees, and the ocean fish, and the river crabs—you know which ones I mean, the ones with the needle-sharp pincers.
[Mother Nova laughs.] And it created you and it created me, and watched us move along one another and watched us act upon one another, and in that the Infinite Light found great entertainment.
But watching through our eyes confused the Infinite Light, and it grew frightened whenever one of its creations passed.
For while the Infinite Light persisted, our physical forms could not.
For while the Infinite Light was the very cosmos, our bodies were not.
And even as the Infinite Light welcomed itself back into itself, the Second Original Fear came to be, the fear of not being.
Of course, we know that there can be no fear of not being, for everything that is had always been the Infinite Light and doesn’t stop being the Infinite Light when it passes.
The longer the Infinite Light watched itself through the eyes of every living thing, the longer it played the billions and billions of different roles it had created, the more forgetful it got.
So forgetful, that the Infinite Light forgot that it was it in every living thing.
And when the Infinite Light gazed upon another in a different dress, as I gaze upon you, it no longer saw itself.
And thus, it grew ever more frightened, and so the Third Original Fear came to be, the fear of the Other.
But we know now that there is no Other. There is only the Light, animating everything that you see, playing a game with itself.
Take today and every other day, as you have been since you began your studies, to reflect on that.
Take the time to look at one another and remember that you are more the same than you ever will be different.
For a while, the masks you wear may be of a different colour and of a different design, but the actor behind the mask is one and the same.
I am as much the Infinite Light as you are, and you are, and you.
I am as much the Infinite Light as the rabbits in the garden and the peaches on the trees.
Remember that when you grow frustrated with one another or when you grow frustrated with a stranger.
Remember that when you wish to respond with violence.
We are all the Light, playing a game. Don’t harm another, for you will be harming a part of yourself.
Don’t mock another, for you will be mocking yourself.
And don’t think yourself above other things, for those other things are you as well, and there is nothing to be above.
[End of recording]