I’ve been following a thread on Prosperity Path Form. In the discussion the following was offered by I.W.
“Imagine you have put seeds in the soil from a plant that you know produces magnificent flowers, but you are unaware that it only flowers once every hundred years. Such plants are rare, but they do exist. So, you wait, feeling anxious and troubled… Your impatience proves only that you do not know the nature of this beautiful flowering plant. But then, there are other seeds that produce flowers after only a few weeks. Of course, this pleases
you more, but the flowers are more common.
“Every activity you engage in is like a seed you plant. If you get rapid results, you are satisfied, but ask yourself sometimes whether the seeds that develop rapidly are the best. Often, it is rather the opposite.”
Thank you I.W. for that contribution. I’d like to start from this notion and offer a little expansion of this idea.
To my way of thinking, the grand endeavor we have chosen for ourselves is not the same as planting a single seed. We are not looking for just one plant to grow and bloom. Rather the path consists of hundreds and thousands of plant that will grow and bloom — all in their own time.
Given the nature of time and the nature of plants, the seeds that mature fast will mature fast. The seeds that flower rapidly will flower rapidly.
When we start on the path some seeds will mature very quickly — giving us a bountiful bouquet in the beginning. As we continue down the path all of the early blooming seeds will have done their thing. Now, we have the seeds that require more time, more effort before they mature and bloom. Eventually these seeds will mature and bloom as well.
Later, after the early bloomers, the not-so-early bloomers and even the late bloomers have come then gone we are left with the “oh my god will there ever be another bloom” seeds.
I consider it an aspect of compassion for new students of the path to be welcomed by a small out pouring of flowers from their first beginning efforts. Whether by design, accident, or an expression of the unfolding mathematics of the cosmos doesn’t matter. I still consider it blessing.
But what of the students that have been on the path awhile? What can they expect in the way of flowers? Fewer and further between. That’s the nature of the game.
This process is illustrated in the video game Diablo 2. That’s right, the leveling mechanism in D2 demonstrates (as in table-top demo) this effect very nicely. The first two hours that you play a new character, you may take the character from level 1 to level 16 or even level 20, or higher. But later as you do Baal runs for experience, you’ll find the leveling process slowing down. Right around level 85 it starts to get noticeably slow. Then at level 90, it gets really slow. And then at level 98 you need about 10,000 Baal runs to make just one more level to 99 — the final level. As I said, a table-top demo demonstrating the slowing down effect of noticeable process. Fast, obvious results in the beginning. Slower and less obvious results later.
Pay attention to the flowers at the beginning. Remember these flowers. Remind yourself of their fragrance. There will come a time when you start to wonder: “Was there ever really a thing called a flower?”
Keep the fragrance, it might help sustain you through one or two dark nights of the soul. They are there down the path. Leastwise, postcards from further down the road have made mention of it.