In the Egyptian Museum of Cairo, there is a statue I like very much. It depicts Pharaoh Ramses III standing between Horus to the left and Seth to the right. Both gods are canonizing the pharaoh, who faces neither to the left nor to the right. The same image of Seth and Horus adorns the walls of many different pharaoh temples. Seth symbolizes the darkness, while Horus represents the light. The Ancient Egyptians accorded the same respect to Seth as they did to Horus. Likewise, the temple of Besakih, the biggest temple in Bali, is dedicated to Shiva, the Destroyer. The ancient civilizations did not deny darkness. They did not try to shun or avoid it. They accepted its presence and embraced it, because they knew true light would then emerge from it. It’s just like the reply I received in Bali when I asked why almost all the temples were dedicated to Shiva: “It’s to embrace darkness in order to reveal the light within it.”
Let me ask you what lies beneath all those spiritual exercises we practice, guys? When do we truly feel that all the blockages have been removed? You may be using a technique of your own choice, but what’s the basic keynote here? Isn’t it about accepting and embracing the things we deny, shun, or repress? When you embrace whatever it is you’re denying, the blockage it created transforms. Now, let me rephrase this. You know the word “live,” meaning to be in the state of living. Let’s look at this word in a mirror. What does the mirror say? It says “evil,” meaning simple darkness. When you block the flow of life, evil emerges, but once you remove the blockage, life resumes flowing again…
We have not come to this world to be angels or ascended masters, nor is the purpose to become a wise elder, saint, holy person, or such like. We’re here to live our lives, and the more we succeed in embracing and accepting all that is, the more we can live. We also did not descend to Earth with specific missions. Do we have basic purposes? Yes, of course we do. Think about when you play a PC game, such as Warcraft. Are you really there to save a world from danger? Or is the point just to play the game and enjoy yourself? There may be missions you carry out throughout the game, but what does it matter? When you shut down your computer, do you still feel obliged to do anything related to your so-called mission from the long-gone gaming session? Or do you just recall how you enjoyed your time?
The key to enjoying this game called life is to transform your evil to live. You have to recognize and accept the evil in yourself. You can then recognize the mirror that transforms it into live. The moment you recognize this mirror, life resumes flowing by itself, and you suddenly find that your evil is now live. Okay now, here’s one more question for you: What’s the difference between live and evil? Aren’t they the same letters read in different directions? They harbor the same energy, don’t they?
I say, “I am what I am.” With all my light, dark, humor, rage, joy, anger, and so forth, it’s all me. The falsities I project to the world are just illusions. I came here, into this world, to recognize and embrace all that I am, to truly live. The rest is just history.
Now let me repeat what I have always said and always will say: I am what I am.
