Once Upon A Time

Everybody has a story. What is your story? Being alive on the face of this earth might be the most trivial thing to you: “I’m alive. So, big deal?” But it is a big deal, in fact the biggest deal there is.

Right now the story goes: once upon a time there is a human being. And this being has all the possibilities. No limits. And of all the choices that the human being has, he, she can choose clarity.

In your life story, how many times would you be clear? How many times do you ask yourself, “Why am I here?” How many times do you wonder, “What’s going to happen to me?”

You can choose clarity every single moment of your life. Or you can choose confusion. Both are in you. How much? Exactly 50-50—not 51 or 49. 50-50.

Strength and weakness are also in you. How much strength? Exactly 50 percent. How much weakness? Exactly 50 percent. And you have to choose.

When I was growing up we had a little Lhasa Apso dog, and he had a temper. One day, this dog was barking and barking. “Who’s out there? What’s wrong?” So we ran outside. And there he was, this little thing, in front of a mirror that somebody had left outside. He saw himself in the mirror, and he wanted to tear that other dog into little pieces. It was very funny for us to watch. It was like, “But doesn’t he know that’s him?!” And the answer is, “No!”

That’s what happens to you as well, to the whole world, when we don’t know who we are. In your life story, do you understand that this is the most precious time, that life is the most precious gift? Do you know your self? Not the idea of yourself, but do you know your self?

- Prem Rawat