Creating A Climate For Success In Your Life

The lesson of the lake
A teaching from Hang Sen
From ‘The incredible teachings of Hang Sen’
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Hang Sen loved to walk. I was absorbed in the scrunching of my boots in the knee deep snow as I waded behind the old man, bent against the wind, his staff thumping rhythmically into the ground with every step he took. I couldn’t help but smile at him as he led me on deeper into the forest as the icy wind threw fistfuls of snow down upon us.
He was waddling like a duck because of the rather odd homemade snow shoes he had made for himself, and when I commented on the fact he merely glanced over his shoulder and with a smile said ‘Function over form’ and then turned back to lead me to wherever it was we were going.
After a short while we emerged out of the forest to find ourselves at the edge of a small frozen pond, or lake. Hang Sen led me over to a fallen tree trunk and draped two blankets over it so we could sit down.
We sat down together, wrapped ourselves in silence and watched as our breath billowed about our heads in clouds of white vapor.
“What do you see there?” Hang Sen eventually asked, nodding at the lake.
“I see a frozen lake.” I replied
He nodded, ‘What else?’ he asked
I thought about it for a while ‘Nothing else, I see a frozen lake’ I reiterated
‘You see ice?’ Hang Sen asked
‘Yes, of course’ I replied ‘I told you, I said I see a frozen lake’
Hang Sen turned toward me, his black eyes bore into mine and he said ‘No, you see a frozen lake, not ice. If you saw ice then you would have answered “I see ice”’
I remained quiet for a few moments, and then said ‘I don’t get it.’
‘Good’ Hang Sen chuckled, ‘that means I have something to teach you and you have something to learn.’

‘When you say you see a frozen lake, you are seeing the entire lake as frozen. But it is actually not so. The top most layer of that lake is frozen, but beneath that it is water.’
I still didn’t understand where he was going with this but instead of throwing my objections at him I allowed him to continue
He was smiling now, as he always does when he is about to reveal something to me, ‘The ice is a part of the lake, yet at the same time it is not. It has changed its form’
He paused, I guessed to let the meaning of what he was trying to tell me to filter through to the light of my understanding, but it didn’t quite get there. I remained in the dark.
‘If you were to imagine a three dimensional cross-section of that lake in your minds eye what would you see?’ Hang Sen asked
I told him that what I would see was something that resembled looking at a cake from the side; with the icing appearing as the frozen layer on top and the remaining water as the cake itself.
He seemed to like that description because he clapped his hands together and said ‘Good, good.’
‘Now’ He began, ‘what you see is the frozen surface of the lake, but you take it to mean that the whole lake is frozen. What you are in fact seeing is only the surface manifestation of the lake as a layer of ice on top. Beneath that it is still its source substance, water.’
‘Ok’ I said ‘Go on’
He stopped talking, got up, and went scampering about into the forest. He emerged shortly afterward carrying a sturdy stick and a rock. He walked over to me and handed me the rock.
‘Throw that rock as hard as you can into the lake. I want you to break through that ice.’ He told me.
I sauntered over to the edge of the lake and hurled the rock downward as hard as I could. The layer of ice wasn’t very thick and the rock burst through with a crack and watery thud.
‘Here’ Hang Sen said, handing me the stick ‘Fish out a piece of the broken ice with this and bring it back up to the log.’
I prodded around and fished out a piece of broken ice about the size of a dinner plate.
‘What am I supposed to do with this?’ I asked as I sat down again next to Hang Sen.
‘Break a piece off and put it into your mouth’ He replied.
So I broke a piece off and placed the piece of ice in my mouth. It melted rapidly and I swallowed the icy water.
‘Wonderful’ Hang Sen said, smiling at me with those two black eyes waiting in anticipation.
Whatever it was he was expecting didn’t happen. I just stared blankly back at him.
‘This is the lesson of the lake’ He said.
‘What is?’ I replied.
‘Ah’ he sighed, ‘You haven’t got it yet have you? I guess I’ll have to explain everything to you’
‘I guess so’ I said, it was my turn to smile.
‘Think of that lake as wisdom. In its pure, natural, source-form it is water. Just as wisdom in its source form is invisible and intangible. When we want to bring wisdom into the realm of experience we need to crystallize it, to freeze it in the constraints of time, space and form. This is how the water becomes ice, and how wisdom becomes the form of words, or actions, or some other such means as art or music. The true essence of wisdom becomes as ice on the surface of the lake so that we can bring it into the world of our experience.
‘Now what we do, is we can remove our piece of wisdom (ice) from the surface of the lake and in doing so remove it from it’s source and move to another place, and give it to another person. This is why I asked you to break the surface of the lake and bring a piece of the ice here. You held that piece of wisdom in your hands and carried it with you.
Then by placing it in your mouth, you savored and experienced that ice and in doing so allowed it to return to its source form within you. Water turned to ice returning to water in your own mouth.
Just like this, so everything in life works. Everything is part of the one great lake of source energy and is intangible and invisible. Then, through bringing about the right circumstances in terms of creating the conditions that allow that source energy to transform into the material realm, to be frozen as it were in the realm of time, form and space, we are able to experience it on a tangible, experiential level. Then a funny thing happens, because as we begin to experience the fruits of our creation, or as we place the ice in our mouths, it melts back into the realm of the intangible through the process of experience to return once again to source energy.
He paused to let me take all this in.
‘So, in this lies the lesson of manifestation’ He continued after a while ‘everything stems from the source. We then create the conditions in our lives through our thoughts, feelings, beliefs and actions that allow that source to freeze, or become something that has form, constrained by the laws of time and space, and so we bring that into our experience, but then’ He held his finger up ‘We do something equally incredible… we experience the manifestation of what we have created and through doing so, through placing the ice in our mouths so to speak, we allow whatever we have created to return to the source form from where it came.’

‘Now, you may be wondering why I am telling you this’ Hang Sen said, his brow creased into a slight frown ‘well the reason is this - In order you for to create whatever it is you are wanting to experience in your life, you need to learn how to create the conditions required to have that thing freeze in time, space and form. You need to learn how to control the climate of your thoughts, feelings, actions and beliefs so that they enable the water to freeze!’