blind

The higher you go, the smaller you seem to be for those who do not know how to fly...so spoke Zarathustra!You have a seed: when you look at the seed you can find no indication of the flowers that will grow from it. There is not even a clue of what it can be. Will it be a lotus -- blossoming in the water but remaining untouched by it, dancing in the rays of the sun? And the sun too may become jealous, of its beauty, of its tenderness, of its incomparable glory and grace. Its perfume will fly into the sky. Looking at the seed this cannot be known. Looking at the seed one cannot even imagine, cannot even guess. But one day it happens.

So we can think in two ways. Either we can hold tight to the seed and say, "What is not visible in the seed cannot happen in the lotus either. It is an illusion, it is a trick, it is a lie." This is the standpoint of those we call rational, skeptics. They say what is not visible in the seed cannot be present in the flower -- something is wrong. Hence a skeptical person cannot believe a Buddha, cannot accept a Mahavir, cannot embrace a Jesus, because he says he already knows them.

When Jesus came to his village he was very surprised -- the people of the village didn't bother about him at all. Jesus has said a prophet is never respected in his own country. What is the reason? Why won't the village respect its prophet? The village people have seen him as the son of the carpenter Joseph, saw him carrying wood, saw him planing wood, saw him sawing wood, saw him bathed in sweat, saw him playing and fighting in the streets. The people of the village have known him since childhood, have seen him there as a seed. How is it possible that he suddenly becomes the son of 
God! No, those who saw the seed cannot accept the flower. They say there must be some fraud, some cheating; this man is a hypocrite.

Buddha returned to his village. And the father --
what the whole world could see, the father could not see. The world was experiencing an illumination, the news was spreading far and wide, people began coming from distant countries. But when Buddha came back to his home after twelve years, his father said, "I can still forgive you. Though what you did was wrong, you tormented us, you have certainly done a crime, I have a father's heart -- I will forgive you. The doors are open for you. Throw away this begging bowl, remove these monk's clothes. None of this will do here. Come back -- this kingdom is yours. I have become old; who is going to look for it? Much childishness has gone on, now stop all this play!"

Buddha said, "Please look at me. The one who left has not returned. Someone else has come, the one who was born in your house has not come back. Someone else is here, the seed has returned as a flower. Look deeply."

The father said, "You are going to teach me? I have known you since the day you were born! Go and deceive others; go and lecture other people and delude them -- you cannot deceive me. I repeat again, I know you perfectly well -- don't try to teach me. I am willing to forgive you."

Buddha said, "You say you know me? I didn't even know myself before. Only recently have the rays of light descended and I have come to know myself. Excuse me, but I have to say that the one you saw is not me. Whatever you saw is not me. You saw the outer shell, but did you look inside me? I was born out of you but you did not create me. I came via you as traveller comes via a certain route, but what do the traveller and the road have to do with each other? Suppose that tomorrow the road says 'I know you, your being has come from me' -- just as you are saying.

"I existed before you. I have been on this journey for many lives. I certainly passed through you, as I have passed through others. Others too have been my father, others too have been my mother. But my being is completely separate."It is very difficult, extremely difficult: If you saw the seed you cannot believe the flower is in front of you.

One way of looking is that of the distrustful, the rational, the skeptical. They say, "We know the seed so this flower is not possible. We know the mud: how can a lotus come from it? It is all false -- a dream, an illusion. He must have fallen into a kind of hypnosis. Someone deceived him; some magic, some spell...."

This is one way. The other is the way of trust -- of the lover, the devotee, of the heart filled with empathy. He sees the flower and from the flower begins travelling backwards. He says,
 "When the flower has become so fragrant, when such radiance appears in the flower, when there is such beauty in the flower, when such fresh innocence is seen in the flower, then certainly it must also have been present in the seed -- because it is not possible that what is present in the flower was not already in the seed."

It is not that these stories actually happened. Those who saw flowers bloom in Ashtavakra concluded that what has happened today must have also been present yesterday -- it was hidden, screened, behind a veil. What is here, in the end, must have been present at the beginning also. What is seen at the moment of death must also have been present at the moment of birth; otherwise how could it arise?

So one way is to look backwards from the flower, and the other is to look forward from the seed. If you look carefully at their essence it is the same, their foundation is the same, but what a difference: like between earth and sky! The one who knows the seed says, "How can what is not in the seed be in the flower?" This is his argument. The one who knows the flower says the same thing. He says, "What is in the flower should be in the seed too." They have the same argument.

But each has a different way of looking.

  Your Majesty, in the curve of a temple, is the sky curved? When a pot is smashed, is the sky smashed? The sky is beyond change. My body is twisted, but I am not. Look at the one within. You can't find anything more straight and pure. Butchers see skin, the wise see being.

 - said Ashtavakra

Ramakrishna to younger Vivekananda :

If I say, "Look how beautiful these ironwood trees are," and you say, "I don't see any beauty -- Trees are just trees. Prove it!," it will be difficult. How can one prove they are beautiful? To be beautiful you need a sense of beauty -- there is no other way. You need eyes, capable senses -- there is no other way. It is reported that Majnu said, "To know Laila you will need the eyes of Majnu." It is true; to see Laila there is no other way.
The king of his area called Majnu and said. "You are mad! I know your Laila -- an ordinary girl, jet black -- nothing special. I feel sorry for you, so here are twelve girls from my palace -- they are the most beautiful women of the country. You can choose anyone you like. Seeing you cry, my heart also cries. "
Majnu looked at them and said, "There is no Laila among them. They cannot even be compared to Laila, they are not even worth the dust of her feet."
The king said, "Majnu, you are mad...!"
Majnu said, "That may be so, but I must tell you one thing: to see Laila you will need the eyes of Majnu."
Majnu is right. To see the beauty of trees you need an eye for art -- there is no other proof. If one wants to know love, one will need the heart of a lover -- there is no other proof.

courtesy : http://www.balbro.com/maha/geeta12.htm