*image by Ben Harubin

 

For years one man chased his shadow (and of course never caught it),
but hey, don't be embarrassed for him, he wasn't aware of any of it.

A man asked a stranger:
"If there is such a thing as "The Enlightenment," can it be achieved in the midst of others?"
"No," he replied.
"Well," said the man, "if 'The Awakening' actually exists, can you be taught how to reach it?"
"No," he replied.
And the man asked, "If The Great Liberation is a real possibility, can it be gained from where a man is now?"
"No," replied the stranger.
And the man, not being able to think of any more immediate questions, thanked him and left.
(Did you notice that in that story of nearly a hundred words, the word "think" appeared only once?)

Based on the man's apparent interests in such, a certain stranger so said to
him, "Theoretically, the best way to go about this would be to study every
map ever used by any who've successfully gone before you, then ignore them
all and make up one strictly of your own from scratch...which seems an
impossibility, what?"
And after the man pondered this for a moment, then nodded his agreement to
the improbability alluded to, the stranger added, "But what question does this
actually address: the difficulty in producing a truly original map, or
the inherent limitations of the mind itself?"

Directions can't go where the mind can't go,
and the mind can't go anywhere it's never been before.
(And of course the mind will refute that last idea, pointing out that it is
demonstratively impossible, or else no one would ever be able to learn
anything new. Sounds impressive...can you see the hole in it?
If so, then you're on the way to seein' a whole heck of a lot more.)

If you're in the mind when you say the word "mind,"
you have no understanding of what the word represents.
(Simple Version: No one knows what the mind is.)

A boy asked his father: "What is the difference between being stabbed and being insulted?"
And the elder replied: "Years ago I would have found such a question indicative
of your promise, now I find it disappointing that you can still find such distinctions
while knowing that, without blood, no thought flows."
And cringing in familial shame, the lad attempted to kick himself in the crotch,
but missed and struck instead his old man in the head (which constructively
served the same ultimate purpose, since trees seldom far from unrelated
nuts spring up to claim their place in the woodwinds section).