Of One Taste with the Universe

Of One Taste with the Universe. In the early 1980s I fell in love with the Tibetan culture. I remember when it hit me the hardest. I was on a bus to Rewalsar in Himchal Pradesh state of India. I looked across at a Tibetan man and he had the most peaceful and happy expression on his face as he looked at the world. I had never before seen such happiness and peace in an adult. The happiest I have ever seen a child was also in that area in Nepal. The child was not able to walk either because of an injury or a deformity. His right leg went to the right at an angle instead of down. He must have been 6 to 8 years old. He had to scramble on two hands and one foot. I have never seen a happier child in my life. He would run down to the river and watch the elephants bathe themselves in the River adjoining Chitwan National Park on the Terai of Nepal. In our culture we might not call such a child sane but in terms of pure joy and amazement at the forms being human can take both this poor Tibetan Man on the bus to Rewalsar(a Tibetan holy place for Padmasambhava) and the poor child in love with the elephants I was never more sweetly touched by the pure joy and peace of being human.

Many of the happiest and most joyful people in the world live very short lives. But in that short time they burn so bright they blind the rest of us temporarily so we can see how wonderful being human can be!

There is a wonderful way that Tibetan Culture speaks about being of one taste with God in all his and her forms. They will say for example, "Make me of one taste with all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas of the Ten directions and the three times". What this actually means is that since time and space don't in actuality really exist, "I am actually one with all cultures in the universe of all species of compassionate beings that have ever existed, exist now or will ever exist." To even contemplate this mentally is to boggle ones mind. To feel this for an instant is to feel overwhelmed with joy and peace. However, to live 24 hours a day experiencing this state in actuality is to be Enlightened!