the ants of the 22nd floor

one time, last year, after my shift ended, i decided to pay my wife a visit and fetch her from work. their company holds office in a very tall building and they are at the 22nd floor. if i remember right the building has more than 30 floors. i was delighted to find the elevator ride so smooth. i hardly noticed it until a red light flashed 22 and the elevator stopped and automatically opened the door for me.

my wife will not be off till 6 pm so i have to wait for her. i decided to while the time away reading the day's paper and drinking some coffee at their small pantry. after finishing my coffee i stood up to wash the cup but i remembered they don't have any faucet there. used cups and dishes are deposited in a plastic bucket and the office utility person washes them later. i was about to put my used cup into the plastic bucket when my eye caught this frenzy of activity in the bucket. the other used dishes inside are already teeming with ants! my initial reaction was to fill my cup with water and spray it over the ants to disperse them or kill them. but, a nagging question popped in my mind which deterred my evil plan.--- HOW WERE THESE PUNY CREATURES ABLE TO FIND THEIR WAY TO THE 22ND FLOOR?

did they march their way from the ground to way up here? if they did, i surely would love to discover the source of their strength and their energy. it will make me rich!

did they ride the elevator like i did?

did they "beam up" like our captain kirk and his enterprise crew of the famous star trek series? can they teleport? or apparate like harry potter and his magical friends?

did they ride the gentle wind, gliding freely aloft over invisible wings and land unscathed on the 22nd floor window and sneak inside the pantry and guided by their instincts find the unwashed dishes in the bucket?

suddenly, this realization came to me and i am humbled: if these little creatures, these little lives, can find means to scale these heights, these lofty places, how can not i, a man of higher intellect and superior abilities, be able to reach the loftier abodes and planes of existence that my Creator designed me to behold and experience?

it is because i am not trying hard enough. i am not willing it. unlike these ants of the 22nd floor. come to think of it, surely there will be ants even up to the 30th floor!

i am not willing it.

i have let myself be trapped and be deluded by the illusions of this material world. i forgot that i am not just mere physical body. that i am something else. that i have this real Self that transcends death and is designed by its Creator to scale higher planes of existence and eventually to unite with the Creator to enjoy Eternal Truth, Knowledge, and Bliss.

the first step is to awaken. to know that we are not just physical bodies that die and rot and become dust.

it will not take just an ant bite to awaken most every one of us. but, an ant bite especially from an ant of the 22nd floor, might start the mind's wheel to turn inwardly ...