*image by Ben Harubin

Look! What's That Up Ahead?
Just before an enlightened man becomes really enlightened,
he is like a hippopotamus choking on a sesame seed.
..."Did you say 'up ahead'?"

A man so pondered, "Having the mind correct itself is a tricky thing indeed."
To which his brother responded, "Not tricky -- impossible."
"Same as in
having a brother of yourself."
So many voices -- so few thoughts.

A man asked a mystic, "Do you answer questions?"
And the mystic replied, "How can I say no?"
And the man said, "You could've not been a mystic."

A correspondent writes to ask if we know of a song with the title
"It's Hard To Know What You're Doing If You Don't Know What You're Doing,
but It Seems Even Harder To Do Anything If You Do Know!"

(He says that he's never actually heard of such a ditty, but figures if one
does exist we'd be the ones to know about it.)

When a man, interested in such matters, heard that one of the renowned
ancient mystical teachers had said "all events are preceded by thought,"
he thought, "I'm either on the wrong track or've picked the wrong business."

What entity within the entire reaches of the universe and reality, other
than man's thoughts, would promulgate such an outrageous canard and captious
deception as that of saying "all events are preceded by thought"?
Don't allow your sense of reasonable propriety or belief in the significance
of a weak stomach bar you from the recognition that even illusionary
cannibals consume their own.

Looking into that mirror that no man can hold in his hand, he thought,
"There is no self, only the actions of the thing we call a self, and we
are not working to create a self, but rather to live a deliberate life."