Written by Paramahansa Yogananda, edited by Lak Loi,
Musk is a valuable, extremely aromatic substance contained in a sac beneath the abdominal skin of the male musk deer, a habitant of the high peaks of the Himalayas. As the deer reaches a certain age, the penetrating door of the musk begins to waft from the sac. The deer becomes aroused by the exciting scent and frisks about, sniffing under trees and boulders, searching everywhere – sometimes for many weeks – to find the source of the persistent fragrance. Unable to locate the tantalising perfume, he grows extremely restless, then angry. In their frenzy, and in a last desperate effort to reach the source of the maddening essence, musk deer have been know to plunge from the high cliffs and fall to their death in the valley below. Hunters, finding the carcasses, tear out the treasured pouch of musk.
An enlightened bard once sang,
O you foolish musk deer, you sought the fragrance everywhere but in your own body. That is why you did not find it. If only you had turned your seeking to yourself, you would have found the cherished musk and would have saved yourself from death on the rocks below the crags.
Most people behave like the musk deer. They seek the ever fragrant, elusive happiness everywhere outside themselves: in play, temptation, human love, and on the slippery paths of wealth and fame. And when, finally, they can find no real happiness, the source of which lies hidden within the secret recesses of their own should, they jump from the cliff of high hope and are shattered on the rocks of disillusionment.
O foolish Human Musk Deer! if only you would turn your mind inward, in deep daily meditation, you would find the source of all true and lasting happiness in the innermost silence of your own soul. Beloved seeker of happiness, be not like the musk deer, perishing in your own futile outward search. Awake! and in the cave of deep meditation, find Eternal Bliss within the immortal self.
Peace, love and respect, Sifu Lak Loi
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