Wednesday 10 October 2007

THE TREE ~ A MODERN PARABLE


How many have made the mistake of forgetting the one true thing!
Is it any wonder that so many wish to partake in the austerity
of this vast desert and deny themselves the pleasures of the senses?


Lo, traveler, I tell you this: station yourself beneath this almond tree,
and you will see them wander past in an endless procession,
all in search of the one true thing.
And the arc of their yearnings will always take the same shape.


In the cool quiet of the morning it will seem like a promising day to search for it;
under the roasting sun of noon it will seem unattainable;
in the burnished softness of the sunset,
the glowing prize will seem at their fingertips, just beyond the distant horizon;
dusk will bring confusion.

Is the great day of wrath approaching?
the uncertainty is intoxicating; night comes, and the seeker looks back upon the day -
there is no quest, he is one with what he seeks and always has been;
finally, awakening momentarily, just before dawn, the futility,
the despair as he realizes the one true thing is further away than ever,
he is locked in the miserable prison of its absence!


Rest, weary traveler, and I will tell you more:
the one true thing is that which once forgotten can never be remembered!
Never! Behold these fools who parade through these barren wastes!
They are in hell!
The very devil himself has entered them, and they are cursed!


As the day progresses, they will gradually forget their wretched condition - for in the forgetting of the one true thing also lies the remembering of it.

The mistake is to remember that you have forgotten it,
for then it is indeed lost forever. It is already far from you.


A new question forms in your mind: did you ever possess
it in the first place?
You did not.
Close your ears to the cry of the distant bird!

Traveler, let us share some tea,
let us look upon this glorious desert gilded by the setting sun,
for now I shall tell you an amazing thing:
there are those who dwell in the Eden of the one true thing!

In paradise!

They are those who have never even conceived of the one true thing,
and have thus attained the splendor of the inconceivable.
Come, let us walk among them;
we shall sit and drink our coffee in the square,
beneath the lanterns that hang from the branches of the great tree

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