The Guest.

We have all experience the wonderful warmth of being a guest in someone's home. Equally, we know the deep satisfaction of having been a host or hostee offering our hospitality to another person. There is a genuine give and take when a visitor is welcome into the home, an exchange replete with great meaning and significance in all cultures down through the ages.

Consider for a moment your own home, with you as a guest residing within. the house provides you with shelter and warmth and a place from which to operate.In retune, you are the very life within that house.

What about your own body, the "Temple of the Soul?' Is it not also a house, a dwelling place for a very important guset? The house that shelters us, made of stone, brick or wood, is obviously not conscious or aware of our presence within its walls. But we are endowed with the gift of consciousness and self-awareness on both the mundane and spiritual levels,and should be aware of the quest residing within us.

We may sense the presensce of a " still small voice"(inner quiet) in Hebrew kol dernama daka sometimes referred to as the inner self or the master within. We may even have begun to develop a relationship with this presence. but are we using the consciousness we have been given to truly know the inner Guest?

In Hebrew, the word for guest is ore'ach, which also means " visitor, path, the way, the traveller on the path," in Arabic, the word is oushipz means "visitor" or the "holy or honoured guest."

HONOURED GUEST
The idea of the honoured guest has been carried with us since ancient times as part of our human heritage. in the Hebrew tradition there is a saying, " He who has fed a stranger may have fed an angel."
We see an example of this in the bible, when three quests appear to Abraham learns from these" messengers" that he and his wife will have a son, even though they are both old and Sarah had been barren for many years. The story of Abraham symbolises the high stature of the guest as a divine messenger. Surely every guest brings a message and should be received with the same reverence that Abraham had for his visitors.

Let us now consider the less obvious meanings of the Hebrew and Aramaic word for guest such as the path, the way, the traveller on the path," In the bible, Jesus is quoted as saying " iam the way and the truth and the life" (John 14:6). We know that Jesus and many other great teachers like Moses, Buddha and the prophet Mohammed lived their lives as examples, pointing the way for others to follow. They were also wanderers themselves and " travellers on the path," like moving, focal points, spiritual reference points of living paradox.

What then about the master within, the "I AM" that dwells in our bodily temple, formed by cellular bricks of light? it too is a guest, a messenger from the cosmic and deserving of our highest respect. The guest residing in each of us is a part of the great cosmic soul and therefore also represents the path or the way. It is by keeeping our inner ear tuned to the silent self, our inner eye focused on the invisible guide, that we are directed on our proper course.


THE MASTER WITHIN

And, like the great avatars whose lives have inspired us, the master within is also a traveller. This traveller comes to us from afar, entering the body with the first breath. It carries nothing in the way of material gifts, but brings to us the richness of a knowledge more vast than we can imagine, a knowledge drawn from every corner of the universe.

Now that we begin to recognise our quest, how do we attune with the holy presence within? first, we must learn to be like nature..,ready, grounded, still and silent; for it is in the stillness and silence that the master within is revealed, and only to the one who is waiting and ready to receive with an open heart. It may take some time for us to reach this state of receptvity. In preparation, we must keep a watchful eye on all enters our "house" and all that rediate out from it, so that ours will be a temple worthy of the presence of the inner guest.

Each thought that knocks at the door of the mind should be examined and only the purest allowed to enter. Similarly each word we utter shouls pass through three holy gates:truth,necessity and kindness. our actions too must be constructive and harmonious sot hat we may prove ourselves, to ourselves, as deserving of the master within. in preparing ourselves for attunement with the inner self, we are reminded that the personal quest resides in all other beings as well. There may be many "houses" but only one guest: many bodies, but the same one Soul expressing itself in a myriad of special ways, like the many petals of our beloved rose, or the many rays of the one sun, the source of light of our solar system.

When two houses, two bodies, two beings, face one another, they may recognise the same guest looking out through the windows of the soul," in the constant reflection, the Inner Self is ever manifesting. That is why we are instructed in the ancient texts to " welcome everyone with joy," for to welcome a fellow man is to welcome the shekina ( Devine presence)" says the midrash. in the Jewish tradition, this is called "The Holy Meeting."

What bether encouragement could we hope for, what greater security than to know that the all-embracing consciouness of the Cosmic is everywhere and in everything? we need only direct the questioning mind to this great fount of wisdom in order to draw from its infinite consciousness the message that we need at any given time.

EXPANDING CONSCIOUSNESS
To do this regiures that we expand our personal" little self" view to include the guest residing in all beings and in all things. With a heart that know how to wait, we gradually extend our boundaries far beyond the pysical, mental and emotional definitions of self.Only in this way can we partake of the whole.

But a word of caution from our brethrenm the sufis! "dont make friend with an elephant trainer unless there is space in your living room for an elephant!" or " trust in God, but tie your camel first." Fortunately, the metaphysical teaching guide us step by step through our unfoldment; each phase perfactly designed so we are able to gradually embrace a larger universal view, our consciousness expanding in its own time.

w
We experience disharmony only when we cut ourselves off from the perfect connectedness of all creation, and this is obvious to the true student. The Guest residing within us and around us is our constant reminder of our right place in the cosmic scheme, ever affirming our true sense of belonging and purpose. It is by attuning with our Greater Self, through a proper word and proper act, that all health and harmony are restored.

When we stop to reflect, we see that the Guest is the very life within us, just as we are the life within our material homes of brick, stone and wood. The Guest keeps the eternal flame of life burning in our house, radiant and resplendent. We behold the same light shining within every other house. It is the fire of love, a jewelled lamp in the window of every dwelling to welcome the weary traveller. There is a prfound saying: "if it is dark enough, one candle is plenty.' may the light, life and love of the Guest guide us on our journey and remind us that our real home is the whole universe, our destination, the infinite.