The One

"Of every one hundred men, Ten shouldn't even be there, 

Eighty are nothing but targets, Nine are real fighters...

We are lucky to have them...They make the battle.

Ah, but the One, One of them is a Warrior...

and He will bring the others back."

In every community in every part of the world, in every gathering of people, whether it be business, social, political, spiritual, or artistic in some way, including in a theatre when watching a play or listening to a concert, or even if you are just informally sitting at a party, there is always someone who is the "one".

When I was a younger man, I had a friend who, much to my dismay, always seemed to be the "one". He was always the boss. He was always the one that made the decisions within our group of friends, and particularly in relation to me. And I was extremely envious of this. I couldn't figure out how this could be. It seemed so unfair, and I just didn't understand. Because, to my way of seeing, I was apparently not the one and he was, and this was very difficult and painful for me. And as I was envious of him in this way, of course I was resentful as well, that he had this power over me, and I was angry. I didn't so much get angry overtly, because I was ashamed of this. I wanted to hide this anger from him. So it came out in various ways.

But only later in my life, when I began to focus more, and look more closely at this, did I realize that the reason I had so seriously missed the point, was that I was focusing in the wrong direction. I didn't realize that I was the one, too; that I could be the one, without making him not the one. My thought had been that he had taken the position of the one, and I could only think of how to get it away from him. I pondered, "How do I snatch that from him so that I can be the one? How can I wrest this position away from him?"

So I am simply reminding myself here of something that I already know; namely that in any situation there is always somebody who acts as the one. However, in a formal teaching situation, someone who is a teacher, a true teacher, is understanding what is the one, and in fact is representing the one, but instead of trying to lord it over everyone else, he or she is always wanting to give it away. A true teacher is only there to help you realize that you are already the one. Because s/he understands that this is so, without a doubt. And even though everybody has this condition of oneness a priori, still it is very rare that a person actually recognizes that he or she is the one. And while I say that in every situation there is someone who acts as the one, that doesn't necessarily mean that this one acts with complete self-knowledge. There is always one, but whether that one really sees the whole oneness issue, is up for discussion. They may not get the whole banana, but there is always someone that is standing out in this way, and everyone always knows this.

Has anyone ever been in a monastery? And for those of us that have been, what did we find when we got there?

There are all sorts of things we can do in our lives to avoid difficult and challenging situations. But no matter where we go, like a monastery, the difficulties seem to follow us. I was once in a monastery. I went to avoid the distractions and temptations of this world, which I was not handling too well. But when I got there, I realized that they were all sitting right next to me. All those things I took with me. They are always going to be there.

In other words it doesn't have anything to do with anyone else. It doesn't have anything to do with external conditions. It is not where you are, but what you are. It has to do with your state of being; your state of mind. And that is what I am trying to get to here; that no matter what is happening with this person who is annoying you, what makes the difference is not what is happening with him, and not what you do in reaction to this, but what is your state of mind. That dominates all. That is the "one".

Guest post by: Christopher Curtis Sensei