The Child Within Us Lives

The Child Within Us Lives! by William Samuel pp. 36 - 39

DA SHAN IS AN IMAGE OF AN IMAGE

In The Gospel According to Thomas we find these remarkable words: Jesus said: If they say to you: "From where have you originated?," say to them: "We have come from the Light, where the Light has originated through itself. It stood and revealed itself in their image." If they say to you: "Who are you?," say: "We are His sons and we are the elect of the Living Father." If they ask you: "What is the sign of your Father in you?," say to them: "It is a movement and a rest."

That in mind, imagine still another mighty mountain beyond Da Shan. It is an unseeable Infinite Mountain of Reality, preexisting Da Shan in exquisite Simplicity. That mountain transcends all names. It can't be seen directly by those who are climbing Da Shan, but when one reaches the tangible mountain's peak and stands balanced there, he begins to perceive the Mountain Beyond Name, mysteriously inverted, its peak touching the peak of Da Shan. It is a Mighty Universe so vast that even Da Shan is but a granule within its heart.

In a twinkling, the balanced Child, but ONLY the balanced Child, sees that Da Shan is an image of the Mountain Beyond Name. More, he sees that Da Shan, the image of the real, is an infinite quantity of images of images of the Mountain Beyond Name - all spiraling inward - and because Da Shan is so many images, and images of images, compacted inward, Da Shan (the world) appears opaque and solid to the climber, his own body a physical microcosm of Da Shan.

The Child perceives, further, that the light which is the substance of Da Shan is only an image of the Light of the Real Mountain Beyond Name. The limited light of Da Shan is in motion; the illimitable Light of Mountain Beyond Name is at rest. Da Shan appears one way in its own limited light, quite another way in the timeless Light at rest.

Standing atop Da Shan, one also finds that the physical body has a Twin for which the climber's self-image is a poor inversion. Indeed, the real Identity stands within the very center of the Ineffable Mountain Beyond Name and atop DaShan simultaneously. More than that, The Child is everywhere on Da Shan at once, as well as at the Heart of things. This "other" Identity has a Name - the Child, the Christ-Light, the Guide, the Original One-I-AM, the Comforter, Messiah which has never left the State of Grace of Mountain Beyond Name and has never been bound by the world's time and space, even while appearing there.

Atop Da Shan, the balanced View, the Child's view begins to comprehend that everything under its feet is imaged confirmation (to infinity) of the REAL; that everything beneath the balanced foot exists in time's inward spiral - present to confirm eternal Timelessness and infinite spacelessness.

Ah so, as the good people in Kwangse often say, what does this mean? For starters, it means that at each moment of time on the face of Da Shan, the unbound, unconfined Child within us is available to guide our way to Da Shan's peak wherein time ends and Timelessness exists already.

What does the Christ Child, the Heart within, tell us that helps our ascent? That in Truth, the Real of us is victorious already - and in proportion to our belief that those words are true, THIS tangible experience in the world of people, places and things progressively moves to CONFIRM that Fact, proving the Light of the Eternal - appearing in our experience as another step toward the Truth, another Glimpse.

How? As a perfect balance maintained against all worldly odds; as inward scenes of beauty; as feelings of joy and well-being beyond human comprehension, all rushing to confirm the Real - the veritable "proof of God" the world (Da Shan) is looking for.

WHAT ELSE DOES THE CHILD WITHIN TELL US?

It tells us intimately of "The Equation" without which no one tangibly reaches the pinnacle of understanding.

What is the Equation? It is the mysterious Balance - the perfect balance actually lived in the world of appearances. This will become clear in the pages ahead.

THE PATHWAYS

Da Shan has four long known and studied pathways to the top and a fifth pathway not so apparent. Love, devotion, service, wisdom and then the Child's Way. Five avenues in all - like five approaches, five balances, "five trees" as early Christians spoke of them. The Child's top-down view reveals the bottom-up pathways, each a perfect balance. Therefore, we look out into the world from wherever we seem to be and find ways that lead irrevocably to ultimate comprehension. The fifth and last is a composite of the others and is the most direct route of all. That is the way that has been shown to me. It is the pathway one Child wide. It is the Child's Way.

Many of us travel more than one pathway during our lives and some of us none at all. At the end of our span of time, the pathways plainly merge, and, as the fingers of the hand come together at a common arm leading to the heart, all the ways are understood and appreciated in the heart of us. From the slopes, each way is singular, none necessarily better than another. The fifth way, the unseen way, is the Child's way, the New Way, the straight and open way to Godhead. This work discusses that pathway in detail.

When one arrives at the peak of understanding, he finds he has not climbed a real mountain at all. Rather, the climb in tangible time and space confirms the Eternal Identity residing already in the heart of Godhead - Mountain Beyond Name. Or, to say this obversely (which is the way the world appears to us): At Da Shan's top, one finds he has climbed the mountain an infinite number of times and every mortal's search is his own, appearing as all possibilities happening simultaneously.

At the peak, one finds that the Child's Equation is the Key for every climber - and he announces this Equation to his world!