*image by Ben Harubin

 

The Great Mystical Work:
Illusionary maps of imaginary places.

A toad asked a prince, "In chasing enlightenment, what have you done but substitute
a new bunch of thoughts for your old bunch?"

(Under certain conditions thinking could save your life, but it does not lead your life.)

It has been noted -- on a thousand monastery bathroom walls -- that a man is
enlightened in the blink of an eye, but then it takes the rest of his life for him
to figure out what it means.

(That's a thousand walls, plus or minus.)

"Having no thought," said a mystic to some monks, "in the sense that I mean
it, does not mean that you have no thoughts, but rather that you do not
think of your thoughts as having any significance whatsoever."
"This, in the extreme, is having no thoughts."

The Great Mystical Activity:
Illusionary escapes from imaginary snares.

In the enlightened sense, to "not care"
is to not care about your thoughts.
"It sure is quiet in here."
"Welcome home."

To escape the aimlessness of wordy thought
is to realize the fullness of the silently empty.

And a lad asked his dad, "Is a sham man a happy man?"
"If the condition is deliberate."

And as if that weren't enough (regarding man's tour of life),
this other guy has begun to think of his periodic states of being
more conscious as "I fired my guide."