Root

Sheltering the homeless, feeding the hungry, healing the sick, comforting the sorrowful, legislating justice, advancing science, and making peace between the nations - these are very good works. But the first work is to awaken. Awaken oneself, then your neighbor, to the infinite radiance of our Being.

We may work to the bone solving the world's economic and political problems. But if we are not awake, we fall back into patterns where we have wallowed for eons. My beloved teacher Mahesh Yogi used to say, "Don't water the leaves, water the root."

There are thousands of conflicts in the world, thousands of withered leaves on the tree. Only a madman tries to water each leaf. The wise gardener, in a single stroke, heals the whole tree by watering the root.

The root is consciousness.

Meditation is not escape from action, but action at the root. The world needs activists, movers and shakers, in the realm of silence.