PureInsight | August 30, 2004
PureInsight.org The night was calm and countless stars glistened in the moonlit sky. Suddenly, Alicia woke to the sound of something outside her bedroom door. She cried out as she lay very still, huddled and trembling with fear. Her mother and father were startled. Mother rose from her pillow and hurried to her daughter's room. As she entered, Alicia was hidden between the sheets.
"What is the matter my child?" said mother.
Alicia, hearing her mother's soothing voice, slowly emerged from hiding, pale from her ordeal only moments before.
"Mummy, it sounded like a huge monster was trying to enter my room!" Alicia cried.
"Alicia, there is certainly no such creature here my child," said mother.
Tears began to fill Alicia's eyes. As mother turned to the entrance of the room, she noticed a small, white creature dashing across the floor.
"A mouse, it is only a mouse, Alicia," mother sighed.
"Dear child, your imagination which is ever so beautiful by day, can, by night, turn against your innocence, changing into something that appears frightening to you. Our thoughts can magnify fears into something much larger, such as a mouse into a monster! It is common for many of us to hide our fears away, keeping them to ourselves. In time, however, they can rise again, finding a life of their own."
Alicia listened carefully to her mother's words.
"My child, may I ask you to speak of any fears that might be quietly hiding behind your delightful smile. Please understand that fears are attachments, emotions that are difficult to let go of, and if not shared or discussed, can grow even larger and be carried into our later life. I don't wish to alarm you, only to share my thoughts with you. I have an idea," said mother.
"What is it mummy?" Alicia's eyes widened and further softened.
"From today, let us share these attachments that come to cloud us, and if we can be patient and honest with each other and discuss them rationally, then we have the chance to lessen their hold and remove them completely. When attachments are fewer, our hearts can have greater room for other people. It is finding compassion that is more important than anything else in life."
"Indeed, it is because of compassion that we and all beings are born. When its seeds are many, we can never be apart, no matter the time or distance. It is because of compassion that we can return to the heavens with the greatest heart of all!" said mother.
Alicia, now looking inside her own heart, understood something of her mother's words. Mother then folded her daughter into her warm and tender embrace.
"Let us strengthen ourselves in the knowing that fears and attachments cannot grow where compassion is cultivated and truly nurtured. May our hearts be like a beautiful garden where we can tend to the seeds of virtue and continue to grow together in the light of truth!"
Alicia's eyes now met her mother's gentle smile, thinking to herself that every day she would tend to her special place deep within her own heart. Mother tucked her daughter into bed and thought how fortunate she was to have such a precious gift as Alicia in her life.
Alicia drifted into a delightful dream that same night, where she strolled through a most beautiful, and somehow, familiar garden. Its surrounds were filled with the most colourful and perfumed flowers, and fountains from which the purest of sparkling water flowed. Many small children gathered around her to play, joyful and all shining like the moon with the brightest of white light.
