Monday, November 23, 2009

The Clay and the Potter

The clay can’t model itself.
The potter does.
The parent, the teacher and the politician.
The books, the radio and the TV.
The priest the rabbi and the Zen master.
They are the potters

The clay can’t model itself.
The clay has no hands to model.
Desire and need, want and greed.
Fear and pain and if you are really, really lucky; love.
Those are the hands that model the clay.
But they are not your hands.

You might think you want to be rich because fear of poverty and scarcity has been imprinted in you.
You might think that you need power and fame because lack of love and fear of loneliness has been modeled in you.
You might think you want wisdom or happiness because you were taught you lack wisdom and happiness.

You are the clay, the potential of all possibilities.
The potter will model the clay in endless figures.
Another Einstein, Mozart, Hitler or another clerk at the supermarket.
But the clay can’t model itself.
You can only choose your potter.

You can choose the potter you trust or the role model you want to follow,
You can choose the teacher the priest or the politician.
You can choose the book you want to read.
The Quran, the Torah, the Bible or the Sutra.
The TV show, the radio or the blog.
But in the end you will be the result of the potter you choose.

If you think you are you own master you are just fooling yourself.
The fears and the dysfunctionality of your past will only create more anxiety in your life.
The clay can not model itself.
You need a potter - and the best I found so far is God.

Pray, meditate, communion with God any way you want.
Let his love be the hands of your fulfillment.
Let his wisdom be the architect of your life.
Let God be your potter.

7 comments:

mickael said...

hi Buddha,

once a novice came to a master and asked:
- is there god?
- yes, there is.
next day, same novice asked the master again:
- is there god?
- no, there is not.

my thought can not reach you regardless the effort. it is only you who can break it, reinvent it and thus comprehend it.

every thought is a form. lack of thought is a form. what is potter? where is clay? complications are irrelevant. simple smile is enough. :)

good luck.
mickael

Ted Bagley said...

Sometimes it seems the potter is made of clay as well. Mmmmmm.

Ted Bagley said...

I guess smiles are enough...well, and fiber, of course.

Unknown said...

@ Mickael - Once a college professor came to a kindergarten and asked:
- Why are you teaching the students Grimm Brothers?
Shakespeare and Tolstoy are truly great masters.
Next day the professor came back and the teacher was still telling the children fairy tales.
- You are a really bad teacher - said the professor - I could have teach you what great literature is but my thought can not reach you regardless the effort.
... good luck professor!
Buddha of Hollywood

@ Ted - Yup. And some time the clay is made out of the potter.
... but of course it only "seems" that way :)

mickael said...

Buddha,

grimm are no less fit for study at a university than tolstoy and vice versa :) yet, people do things one way or another because they learned it that way, not because it's efficient.

once i asked: why is there the world? among number of educated and intelligent people only a child gave an answer. is it difficult or simple?

good luck.
mickael

Ted Bagley said...

Ain't it so.

Sandy said...

Buddha, I have been following your posts for a long time now, but due to circumstances I must ask you to unsubscribe me from your list.
I hope to return, but right now my art must come before everything.

ta!
sandy