my piece of cake ...

i was offered a piece of cake once during a birthday celebration i attended. that birthday cake, it was, oh, so sumptuous looking.  there's no denying the fact that the celebrant, or whoever it was who gifted it to him, spent a lavish amount for it. it was just basically a chocolate cake but  with all the elaborate garnishes and decorations it was way so luxurious. that's why when it was being cut up you can hear a lot of oh's and ah's from the guests who admired its construction. i was also therefore of the mind to either eat my piece of the cake or just stare at it, marvel at it and just let it be.

a cake is first and foremost food. so its main function is to satisfy the palate and the appetite. ordinarily, i don't fancy cakes but on this occasion it was the celebrant himself who offered it to me so i must oblige him. there were at least about four layers of special toppings or garnishes above the main chocolate flavored base. i forked a chunk of it toppings and all. as a whole, this bite was very satisfying. i am not a cake connoisseur but i thought that bite was great! i experimented. i tasted my cake layer-by-layer. as i expected, as i went down each layer, my taste buds were treated to differing degrees of flavor mainly hinting of sweetness and bitterness. also my nose quivered as there were also these subtle fragrances i could not identify which added to my enjoyment. then, finally, i reached the main cake base. i forked  a piece of  it and slowly lifted it to my mouth. i was sure this was going to be the best part of this cake adventure.

surprise! it was not what i had expected. 

unlike the other topmost layers, there was no special aroma. and the taste was, well, in my opinion, bland. not sweet. not bitter. just plain baked flour and eggs mixture. maybe, this was how the cake was constructed to be so. plain, simple base and it is just the toppings that will bring the cake to life. maybe, most of the money was spent to buy the garnishes and toppings. maybe, that's what this cake was commissioned for -- to be, foremost,  visually entertaining.

i know someone who makes her cakes differently. she does not garnish her cakes so much, but, what she does is she sees to it that her main cake base will be unforgettable. and her cakes always are. unforgettable. even without any decorations.

on my way home, i had this thought --

we are like cakes too. the Old Sages had taught that we also have layers or sheaths or coverings. we  have generally accumulated "garnishes or toppings" as we went through life, as we go through life. these garnishes and toppings hide our "main cake base", our Self Divine. we are lost in our savoring of these outer layers.  in fact, most of us are consumed on building upon these outer layers, to garnish them more. and the more we focus on adding on these, the more our True Self becomes hidden.

we forget that the Divine Cake Maker saved the best of His ingredients for our main cake base.

we are already complete. we need no more garnishing. we only need to remember.