A Lesson from the Spirit

A wine cellar, smelling of damp and wood. The Spirit said,
“Different barrels.”
“Yes, I see.”
“What do you think, why?”
“Probably for different needs—different volumes for different drinks.”
“There is one must here—wine. But why are the volumes different?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Have you noticed how your requests take on a character, acquire volume and significance, a taste, urgency? They ripen, ripen within you as petitions that you voice.”
“And what’s wrong with that?”
“Nothing. I wanted to show you what it means to wait.
When a winemaker puts wine according to his recipe, he knows that with each year it will only improve its qualities. He knows this, and therefore he is confident.
You, however, when you plant knowledge inside yourselves, doubt, you don’t understand what will come of it in the end. You only desire, but you have no clear recipe, no definite formula, by following which you would easily believe in yourselves.”
“And where does one get this formula?”
“From the depths of your subconscious. It is hidden there, deep down.

You wait, swelling this barrel more and more. You fill yourselves with knowledge, but you are not sure of yourselves, not sure whether anything will come of it.
This uncertainty is like the cork—when you remove it, the wine begins to leak, the vessel begins to empty. And you pour ever more knowledge into it again, not realizing that you do not even let it mature; it simply seeps through you, not enriching, not filling you with that energy, those knowledges, the realization of which would allow you to rise to a new level.

Uncertainty, like a beetle that gnaws wood, devours your vessel. And you no longer feel fullness. You chase after filling yourself, taking more and more, not understanding that you fail to gain wisdom from them, because they all pass through you, just as the wine seeps through a leaky barrel.
And however much you fill yourself, nothing will work; you will not be able to feel fullness until you bring your vessel into harmony, until you bring yourself into harmony.

What use is it to pour wine through a sieve?

When you prepare yourself in the right way, the knowledge you receive will not merely linger in you, but will ripen into awareness, into that wisdom that will lead you further along your path of knowing yourself and the world around. So be it.

Only thus—cleansing yourself of fears and doubts, in trust, building your own vessel within yourself.