Fighting Elephants

The following paragraph is from a book I'm reading called, "Tantric Quest" by Daniel Odier. This excerpt moved me because so often I push, push, push, and do, do, do as I think this is the way to experience the best life-a full life. In this mode, I find myself missing so much at the end of the day. The Divine has provided a variety of naturally beautiful elements for us to enjoy. It's all there, so why the run around? Why the search? What will bring us to our knees? Who will bring us to our knees? What will it take?

"We are decorated like fighting elephants, forever goaded on by their driver. We advance with all our weight to get through life, never ceasing to do battle. But one day, the battle takes a turn that leaves us covered with poisoned arrows. A young girl brings us something to drink. She speaks to us and caresses us. She dresses our wounds. She bathes us in the river, and suddenly we find our grace, our lightness, our beauty again. No one recognizes us as fighting elephants anymore. So nothing stops us from spontaneously grasping the divine in ourselves. What we don't know is that the smallest experience can be just this miraculous meeting with the small girl. So little can suffice. The scent of a flower, an open look, a breeze brushing against us-and suddenly the most solid of the cuirasses crack, and through this gap all penetrates us, freeing us forever from gravity and separation."