*image by Ben Harubin

 

There was once a man who lived in two different kingdoms,
and while both of them offered their own joys and problems,
one of them, much more so than the other, in fact singularly so,
was t-r-o-u-b-l-e personified
to think about.
Think about it -- learn from it --
learn what it's worthwhile
to think about.

At first (and for a long time) a man believed that he was getting somewhere;
then he began to believe that his sense of progress was unjustified;
then he began to search for new ways to move forward,
only to eventually suspect that they were all about the same,
and that no one method would give any better objective results than another.
So:
After going through all of this, and after giving it all of his best study and reflection,
he took the only next step that he saw available and profitable -- he killed himself.
(He said he always suspected it would come to this.)

To some, "enlightenment" is first a shot-in-the-head to darkness --
then to enlightenment.

One guy decided, "The reason meditation's so fascinatin' is because it's so close to our ever'day condition – you know, kinda bleary-eyed and starin' off into space, 'bout half out of it."
(Does anyone care to respond or comment on that?...)

One man said, "Okay, let me get this straight:
first we don't resist,
then we resist,
and then we don't resist again?"