< Creator 1 >
There was a human (by the name of Oryan) who each day got into his canoe. He
pushed it out from the shore and began paddling. He paddled upstream against the
current. As Oryan paddled he became strong from all of the work. He saw many new
things along the way, along the river. He kept paddling and paddling. At night
Oryan would pull to shore. He would find something to eat and then fall asleep
exhausted along the banks, knowing that he had learned much and experienced much
on that day, knowing that he had experience the beauty of the river, knowing he
had experienced the challenge of paddling upstream. He would fall asleep
exhausted from the day's work. He would get up the next morning, push his canoe
back into the river and begin paddling once again, day after day, week after
week, year after year, paddling and experiencing. Oh, and certainly it was a
good journey. Certainly it was a loving journey.
As Oryan paddled more and more and the days went by, there was an underlying fear that even he forgot, even he forgot why he was paddling up against the river. One day he tired of paddling. He tired of fighting the river. Oryan was good at experiencing the journey but he tired, for he did not know any longer why he should continue. He had seen every turn in the river, every bank, every tree, every stone, every rock, and they all began looking the same. He did not know why he should paddle any further.
One day Oryan realized the fear that had kept him paddling. He feared that if he stopped, the river would pull him backwards, backwards in his belief system of the time. It would pull him backwards, and certainly he would float down and down and down river until he went over the steep waterfall and was crushed on the rocks underneath. But he had tired of paddling up the river. He cared no longer. One morning Oryan took his boat out. He took the canoe out into the river, but he left his paddles on the bank. He let the flow of the river take him downstream. Down and down and down he went, downstream, past all of the territory that he had gone by before. He knew what was coming. He knew it was imminent. He knew there was a grand waterfall. It would destroy him. It would crush him. But he had no more energy or desire or passion to paddle upstream.
And one day, sure enough, it came up. He could see the river growing swifter. He could feel the rapids growing stronger. He knew the waterfall was up ahead. As he raced towards it in his canoe, going backwards, he looked over his shoulder. He knew that in moments the canoe would be thrown over the edge. He would fall, and fall, and fall, into the abyss, the abyss that each one of you worry about.
You fear that if you let go, you will fall into it. And yet Oryan did let go. And there was a moment as he slipped off the edge, there was a moment of sheer terror and panic. He knew that life as a human was over. And indeed it was! Because in this final moment of releasing, Oryan transformed at that moment of greatest fear and greatest terror. He realized that all that he was experiencing was simply an illusion - simply an illusion! The illusion had been grand and valuable, and it had implications beyond his life, beyond the life of any others. It had implications all the way back to the source of All That Is. He realized that it was an illusion. He realized in that moment of terror and panic that he was the Creator of that illusion. He realized that he could create anything that he wanted now. He could create wings for his canoe! Or he could create for the river not to exist at all!