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Hi. This seems like a relevant post, given some of the recent material that’s appeared on the SB pages. Amber

Excerpt from: Mystic Wisdom of the Masters, The Esoteric Knowledge of Great Adepts, ch. 2, by M.G. Hawking. Kindle Edition 285 pages. ASIN B00SOZYJB4.

Shrina and I, out for a walk, take a path around the west end of the village. As we stroll past the last buildings, we pass an area where the village’s few large animals are sheltered. Noticing lights and activity, we investigate. It is an animal enclosure, smallish, roofed and bedded with straw. A young yak is in labor. Chiricu (Shrina’s older sister)  and two others are here with her. The yak watches them carefully, and if one moves away for any reason, she protests with a strange sound—a yak moo, I suppose—gently but insistently. Shrina tells me that this is her first calf. At this critical time, the young yak obviously wants all her friends around her. They're here and she seems content, but laboring heavily. Chiricu asks me to assist and I gladly consent.

The new yak is soon born; a female, glistening and beautiful in the undulating light. The mother gets up and circles her new baby, licking and nuzzling it gently. She’s clearly happy but jealous enough to nudge us aside if we come too close. She continues this for quite some time; finally she grows tired. I help hold the baby so it can nurse; the mother seems grateful, but still uneasy. At last she calms down, but still will not let any of us depart without protest. Chiricu sits on the ground, the new mother lays down and puts her head in Chiricu’s lap; the tiny yak dines happily.

Lama Karpa arrives to bestow a blessing upon this newly arrived animal. With him come several well-wishers. The mother yak gazes about, proud of her new baby and happy to be such a center of attention. One woman kneels and decks the tiny, wide-eyed creature with a collar of coarse red yarn. The woman’s sister holds forth a battered copy containing some of the Dhammapada's 423 verses (the Path or Way of the Buddha's Dhamma or Teaching, the most famous scripture in the Pali Canon). She asks the High Lama to read from it.

"That will not be necessary," Lama Karpa replies. "We must simply be aware of our gratitude for all that manifests from the Infinite Source."

"We must have a ceremony," the old woman insists.

Lama Karpa shakes his head. "Neither yak nor man was made for ritual. Ritual is intended only to assist the simple man in focusing his awareness."

"But is it not our religion?" the woman asks.

"Religion does not come from scripture," the lama answers, "scripture emerges from the experiences that give rise to what you call religion. You must recognize the vast difference, and so avoid an age-old delusion. Higher knowledge cannot come from any scripture, but rather scripture comes from the experience of higher knowledge. Scripture can assist our understanding, but it is not direct knowledge itself, it is only someone's experience of a greater awareness, translated into symbols, expressions that most closely relate to their experience and what that experience meant to them. Symbols of an experience are not the experience itself. Enlightenment is a state of being; like all states of being it cannot be described. And of course, all symbolic expressions of experience are deeply colored by the experiencer's own beliefs and background. Only beyond the confines of the symbolic lies that which is pure awareness, the experience of the One."

The woman frowns, but does not further argue. He is, after all, the Lama of Siddhalaya, and not easily countered.

"One moment," a resonant voice sounds. All turn; there, standing among us, is Master R.K. He smiles, bows his head slightly toward the earlier frowning now gaping woman.

"Hold forth your hands, my dear." She does. He reaches out his right hand, palm up, open and empty, and holds it over hers. In a split-second shimmer of bright golden light there appears in his hand a beautiful little bell of gold, its rim inlaid rim with deep blue lapis lazuli. There is no misinterpreting this; I am not three feet away. He places the bell into the woman’s outstretched hands. "Here is an offering for the new creature, to celebrate her arrival in the physical world."

Tears fill the woman's eyes. "Thank you master," she murmurs softly. She kneels and attaches the bell to the red yarn collar. The diminutive yak is now very well equipped.

Master R.K. smiles. "We have had our little ceremony, which is well. However, Karpa is correct. You need realize how necessary it is to not cling to the ceremonies of yesterday, or, indeed, to any of the things of yesterday. It is vitally necessary to release each day, to release each minute, to release the many yesterdays and all that has gone by. Without such moving forward, without such detachment from past experience, there is no renewing, and without renewal there is no new realization, thus no new creation. The experiences of the past are no measure of the creative powers of tomorrow. The experiences of the past must never be allowed to give rise to the expectations of tomorrow. If you allow it, the experiences of the past give birth to their own continuity, and the doubts of yesterday give life to the doubts of tomorrow. There is no release from this continuity except in the release of the past. In this there is wisdom. In this, each new day is fresh and clear, free from the light and darkness of all yesterdays; the song of the birds is heard for the first time; the beauty of the mountains seen for the first time; all things are experienced anew. If we carry the memory of yesterday, it constricts and darkens our awareness. As long as the mind is the mechanical machine of memory, it knows no rest, no quietude, no silence; it is forever running in its old ruts, wearing itself out, its awareness narrowed by memories of the past. The mind which is still can reach deeper within—can become aware on a higher level—but a mind that is in constant, purposeless activity wears out and is useless. The wellspring is in the release of each moment as it passes; this is the essence of all creativity."

The animals are well-settled, drowsing happily. With good-byes and hugs from Chiricu, Shrina and I take leave of the new yak, her mother and her friends. Walking along the cliff to our cottage, I consider what R.K. said. I’ve long noticed that those who display a marked tendency to live in or from the past do not seem to benefit from the present—instead they go in circles, encountering near identical experiences repeatedly—they are impetuous, and plunge into good or evil with little loss of time in deliberation. Perhaps for such people the chief charm of the past should be the knowledge that they don't have to live it again.

This excerpt is protected under the laws of the United States of America, the Republic of Nepal, and the Tibet Autonomous Region. Copyright © 2014. Wisdom Masters Press. All rights reserved worldwide.

I hope you enjoyed that. I found that the more times I read it the more I learned. Thank you! Amber

Mystic Wisdom of The Masters reveals the esoteric teachings of profoundly enlightened individuals. It’s available in the U.S. Amazon Store here, and the U.K. Amazon Store here. 2015 Release, Kindle Edition page count 285.