The Shatter Proof Pot
“One cannot fashion a strong pot without carefully preparing the clay by taking out all of the small stones and sand first. Otherwise, when placed in the kiln to fire, the pot will only crack.” — Sri Ramakrishna
From the lesson:
- Sri Ramakrishna told this story to encourage people to follow the instructions of the spiritual teacher for a successful spiritual life that brings joy to oneself and to others.
- If you want to play soccer well, you learn from a soccer coach. What kind of skills do you need before you can play on a team and score goals?
- If you want to play an instrument well, you need to study from a teacher who has mastered that instrument. What do you need to know and what skills do you need before you can play a musical piece or join a music group?
- It is the same in spiritual life. One needs a spiritual teacher to give knowledge and guide one’s practice. From the spiritual “specialist” we learn about subtle truths, overcome selfishness and fear, and finally realize the Atman.
We combined the prior two lessons into one project. While at the river one day, the kids scooped up the clay along the riverbank in a particular area. Usually we enjoy this clay by rubbing it on our skin and then letting it dry out in the hot sun — a kind of detoxification for the skin. But this time we wanted to experience what Sri Ramakrishna was talking about in making the clay pure before it gets fired. We used it for making “fossils” for the “Bone to Stone” lesson, and also pots. Some of the kids worked diligently at cleaning the clay. We ended up with sun-dried clay fossils and pots, some that cracked and some that didn’t. We also learned that we needed to be far more meticulous than we were. Next time we do this lesson, we will use a fine screen to get out even more particles of sand and stones. Now (and we don’t need a sundial to tell us its time for this) let’s apply this analogy in our spiritual life!